Austin Small Business Owner Objects to Use of Store in Rick Perry's First TV Ad

Burnt Orange Report 9/12/10
Austin Small Business Owner Objects to Use of Store in Rick Perry's First TV Ad
Farm to Market Grocery is a small business in Austin located on South Congress. Farm to Market sells goods, organic foods, and other sundries. The store and its caring owners, Angela Atwood and Peg McCoy, have a long history of community service and outreach. And now, thanks to the 2010 Texas Governor's race, they have the unexpected notoriety of being prominently featured in Rick Perry's first television ad of his general election campaign.

Earlier today, Governor Rick Perry and his campaign released their first television ad of the campaign season. The following is a screen-shot from the opening seconds of the ad -- which shows one of the store's workers carrying flowers to put outside the store:

(snip)
This afternoon, I went over and spoke with Peg McCoy, one of the owners. What struck me immediately about Peg was how caring she was. She is not political -- she's spent her life trying to feed, shelter, and care for those in need. Her work was featured in the Austin Chronicle in 2005, in a short piece titled, "Community Cornerstones"

Burnt Orange Report 8/13/10
Second Austin Small Business Objects to Use of Store in Rick Perry's First TV Ad (UPDATED)

Yesterday, I reported that Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Markey Grocery on South Congress in Austin, TX, did not know her store was going to be used in Rick Perry's first TV ad, nor does she support Governor Perry or his views. (Burnt Orange Report: Austin Small Business Owner Objects to Use of Store in Rick Perry's First TV Ad).

This morning, I went and interviewed Max Berendt, who works at the Avenue Barber Shop on South Congress in Austin, Texas -- just a few doors down from the Farm to Market Grocery. You can't see his face, but he's actually the the one who flipped the sign at the front of Rick Perry's advertisement:(SEE UPDATE BELOW).

(snip)
Phillip Martin: Did you know they were going to be using your store in a television ad?

Max Berendt: Not at all, no.

Wallstreet Journal Washington Wire blog 9/13/10
Perry’s Texas Ad Misstep

Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn’t getting the press he likely expected after Sunday’s release of his first fall re-election campaign ad.

The 30-second spot, “Texas: Open for Business,” features the Repubican governor touring three small businesses along with shots of two storefronts in Austin’s trendy South Congress neighborhood. In the ad, Perry touts the Lone Star state’s job numbers (July unemployment: 8.2%, more than a full percentage point below the 9.5% national average that month). But representatives for the two storefronts featured in the ad said they don’t plan to vote for the governor in November. They also said they weren’t told their businesses would be featured in a Perry ad, as first reported by Burnt Orange Report, a Texas state politics blog.

"I don’t support Rick Perry. Nor does the store," said Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery, who said she has asked the campaign to stop using the ad.
"They were filmed on a public sidewalk," Perry spokesman Mark Miner countered.