Hammering it home

This isn’t a great ad, but it does something very unusual for political advertising, it takes it’s time.

I really like the way the ad, has the clips in the beginning, Kerry then Spector. While I’m not sure if that’s effective in this case, I appreciate the fact that they don’t just jump into the attack. So often you see ads that rush to make their point because they know the clock is ticking.

The ad then spends spends the last twenty seconds going back and forth on the flip-flop.  This ad probably could have been done in thirty seconds, it could have made the same point, showing Crist’s flip-flop on health care.   But this sixty second version is probably more effective, not just because it’s longer, and not because they use the extra time to cram another point in there, but because they use the extra time to hammer home the one point they’re trying to make.

Not sure why I don’t like this ad more, maybe it’s the snarky tone of the narrator, somehow it feels like the ad is trying just a little too hard. Like that obnoxious stranger you just met, they’re a little too eager, so you (or maybe it’s just me) become suspicious or just need to push back a little. In any case, I’m not sure it strikes the right emotional tone, but it still worth taking a look.

It’s a Stretch

This ad brought a smile to my face.  I love the style, it makes it’s point with a cheery smile on it’s face. It could have been the standard read, but they went for the newsreel look and sound, and while the gimmick doesn’t necessarily enhance the message, it’s like a spoon full of sugar in this case. It even makes me forgive the fact that analogy (“he’s not riding Kentucky’s horse”) they’re using doesn’t really make much sense, even if they close that loop at the end of the spot.

A jaded perspective

I can’t tell with an ad like this one, if I’m just too jaded and cynical or if the ad is really as lame as I think.

I watch an ad like this one, and I ask myself this question:

“What’s the context for their claims?” Or put another way, “Just what the hell are they talking about?” Whose jobs got eliminated? Is $8 million a lot for a bank president? A little?

It feels like I’m only getting part of the story.  Now I know this ad is only 15 seconds, but I don’t believe it. Maybe an independent voter in Florida sees it and thinks, “Wow, that Sink is awful.”  But to me it feels like an empty charge, and what’s worse, it feels like their trying to hide something from me.

Here’s the problem with an ad like this one, beyond the obvious waste of resources (money, time, etc): Every attack you made that doesn’t land erodes your credibility. It makes the next one less likely to be believed because this one seems fishy.

It’s hammer time

This is a hammer spot, cause it’s about as subtle as a hammer.

Straightforward, not overdone, but it’ll take some repetition for it to sink in, and eventually it make with enough money behind it. It’s what I’ve called before attrition warfare, just line the armies up and go at it. Pretty typical for political attack ads. Also pretty cheap to produce.

Still I don’t think it has the impact per airing that this ad (which I reviewed previously) has:

What if they had just listed the amounts without voice over, then cut the quote of him saying he couldn’t recall, then the votes. I think they were trying to tease out the beginning of the spot, to get the viewer curious, but I just don’t think it works.

A hammer’s not subtle, but often times in politics it’s not death by 1000 cuts, it’s death by 1000 hammer blows. I just wonder if there’s not a better way.