Media consultants in political campaigns are a specialized group of political consultants who specialize in the production of and advice about the media aspects of a campaign. As an amateur vocation, “political adviser” probably dates to the formation of groups in hominid populations, or at least to their acquisition of language. With the rise of urban civilization and vast empires, the role of counselor to the powerful became formalized in the courts and senates of the ancient world. For example, in the Roman Republic—the wellspring of many of our political traditions and nomenclature—political advisers were commonplace. Cicero's brother Quintus wrote his Commentariolum Petitionis (Little Handbook on Electioneering) during the late Republican period, giving advice such as “One has great need of a flattering manner, which, ...