Ugh! Why Can't Democrats Make a Decent TV Ad?

Since I started voting Democratic in the year 2000, I have grumbled to myself and others that Democrats at the Presidential level do NOT know how to make a decent ad. I was fine with Dems sucking at TV ads when I was a Republican, delighted even. But I hate being on a losing team, and crapass TV ads are part of our problem as a party.

Now, the political consultants, if they cared about this post at all, would explain that as an ad guy I don’t understand the incredibly different realities of political advertising. And therein lies the problem. Democratic consultants don’t sell candidates like soap. Republicans do. But more on that later.

There are a couple of notable exceptions to the rule that Dem ads always suck, but not many. Here is, in my opinion, the only really good ad run by a Democratic Prez campaign in this cycle.

Hillary Clinton: 3AM



Don’t think all of Hillary’s were this good. Most were crap. But this one really struck a note.It had a simple singular point, with imagery that reinforced the stakes. You didn’t need any supers or sound for this one. It says Hillary is who we need to be safe.

I disagreed with the ad, but you can’t look at it and not see the power.

Ok. So that one was good. And here are some typical Democratic pieces of crap. By which I do not mean the message, but rather the ads themselves.

Obama: Superbowl



Obama: Quiet



Obama: Need



Why do I call these crap? Well, you have to understand how people view ads, and how they process information.

Now the second two might not have been total crap as they were run in a primary and were talking to the Dem base, that will listen and read all those things. We are a base of policy wonks.

But we are not typical, ESPECIALLY of people who haven't yet decided on whether Obama or McCain will get their vote. Two guys this different -- if you're at all engaged, you've probably made up that mind long ago. Undecideds tend to be less engaged. And that is a critical lesson for the consultants and candidates to understand.

But back to those three Obama ads. The first ad was a big pile of nuthin. What on earth was the message? And how could one possibly expect someone not deeply involved in the election to get a message (whatever it was) out of it? What the Hell did it mean?

What frustrates me about this is that the Dems have so many clear and simple issues to confront McCain with this year, but instead they do these weird passive confused muddled collections of 7 equally weighted messages, none of which is cast in terms that matter when people are at the kitchen table reviewing the bills or filling out Selective Service forms.

Hello! Health care. One guy wants to insure people. The other thinks it's fine that 50 million people can't get sick or they will lose their homes.

Hello! Economy. One guy thinks things is swell. The other knows they aren't.

Hello! Mortgage crisis. One wants to solve the problem, the other thinks the market will solve the problem. Despite the fact that the market CREATED the problem through greed and deception. Sounds like the people we should trust to fix it, no?

Etc.!

I made a post in the last week that showed a DNC ad that was pretty decent. I re-run it below.



With the sound on, sound off, if you're half paying attention, only mildly interested in issues and not at all in abstruse policy points, it still works. The pictures could have been more parallel, and the ad depended too much on supers, but it is pretty good.

But pretty good isn’t good enough. Look what the GOP produces:

McCain: Celebrity



(MESSAGE: You, voter, are above this sort of group think. On the issues that matter to you, Obama is wrong. And he’s a bit uppity too.)

Bush: Windsurf



(Kerry = elitist flipflopper)

Bush: Tank



(Dukakis is weak and a grandstander. A poseur too.)

Reagan: Bear


(Reagan = Strong. Democrats too risky to put in White House.)

Reagan: Morning Again


(Everything good in our lives is from Reagan.)

Gosh, I don’t even want to show you the Dem crap from these elections, but I feel compelled to:

Mondale: Teach Your Parents Well



(The point was that Reagan was dangerously bellicose. What I saw was no linkage of all that stuff to Reagan at all. It’s like Mondale Ferraro were happy to be linked to it all.

Mondale: Fighting



(They SAY Mondale and Ferraro are fighting for us. But they look like they’re partying to me.)

Gore: Beaches



(Oh my God, he’s putting himself to sleep!)

So what makes a decent ad anyway? I think it boils down to 5 things:

1. Focus. One point. One. Not seven. Go back to the ads we just saw.

Here's what I bet the focus group comments would sound like:
Bear: Only Reagan keeps us safe from Russia.
Mondale/Ferraro Fighting: I saw a parade. An old man talked about Medicare.

2. Pictures need to tell the story. That's why you are paying 20 times as much as you would for radio ads. Words reinforce what we see in TV ads. They are not the message delivery mechanism.

WindSurf: Kerry is an elitist flipflopper.
Beaches: A boring man talked about beaches.

3. Don’t be half pregnant. If you have an attack ad, attack. Connect the dots. Close the loop.

Windsurf: Kerry is an elitist flipflopper
Teach Your Parents: Is thirtysomething on now? Did they change the time? Something about NASA. I don’t remember.

4. Relate to people’s goals and needs.

3AM: Hillary is the one that will keep my kids safe.
Superbowl: I think I saw a crowd. Obama was talking.

Now, on this point, Obama SUPPORTERS have made fine vids that relate to people and their goals. Imagine if the campaign ran will i am’s vid on MTV:



It actually breaks the rule of telling a story with pictures, at least kind of, but it is shot, recorded and edited in a way that MAKES you watch.

Another example: Check out this ad that Jeb Bush ran in Florida on Spanish language TV:



What works? OK, so FIRST of all, a Norte Americano actually speaks Spanish well and with a decent accent. Not over the top accent, but making the effort. Then, if you understand Spanish, he equates all of our goals and dreams, and says Florida is our collective home. He's not a white pol trying to demonize us. Further, this is not someone who dubbed an English ad and threw in some brown kids for 1.5 seconds toward the end for "relevance." This guy actually made a big effort to seek the votes of every nationality. It’s not a 'you people' message, it’s an us message.

In reality of course it basically says nothing, but it SPEAKS VOLUMES, because of the flags and the way Bush showed respect for every major nationality. We’re all Floridians. We are all Americans. Nuestro estado...Florida.

5. Great ads demand attention.

I’m gonna show two ads running in North Carolina right now, for the Senate race. Now I ask you, which one will you remember?





Actually I would imagine both work pretty well. NC is a cheap media market and this is going to be a Helluva big spending race. We still live in a world where the first ad can get burned into people’s brains by running it in every ad pod for the next three weeks. I could do without the Star Wars sound effects in the Dole one, but ending with the line That Dog Don’t Hunt is just genius.

NC is famous for positively evil campaigns. And as vile and disgusting as the messages often are, you can’t deny that ads like the following demand attention:


Translation: White people shouldn’t vote for the Nigra. He sure as Hell wasn't saying African American.

And if you are a Dem that cannot imagine sinking this low in a campaign, I just remind you that there could be several Supreme Court appointments in the next four years. And playing nice lets pigs like Jesse Helms win.

To Hell with nice. We need to win.

Hope From the Hinterlands

The Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committee ads are pretty good at times. Not consistently so, but let’s give credit where it is due. Here are some goodies, and thanks to this post on Talking Points Memo for finding the first two:











Now, no one may care what I think. And that's OK. I feel better just for writing it. for attempting to be heard.

It's just that I've got $4600 invested in Obama. And that's A LOT of money to me. I am no millionaire. I have one house, mortgaged to the hilt, not 7, or 8, or 9, or 11. ;-)

The Dems better start making the TV work harder.

Ads Dem consultants have worked on have helped the party lose in 52, 56, 68, 72, 80, 84, 88, 2000, 04. I'm not sure I have the right answers, but you guys sure as heck don't. Don't do the same things expecting different results.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.