August 02, 2004
Better Campaign TV Advertising
Sometime last year I remember being in the Clark campaign headquarters in Little Rock. The television was on in the background when a preview for Spiderman 2 came on. Almost in unison, the entire tech team stopped their work and migrated to the TV to watch. When it was over, there were comments like, "Wow" and "I can't wait to see that." I also thought it was a great preview for what has tuned out to be a pretty good movie. And then I had the thought, "Why can't our campaign ads be more like that?"
Besides the increased production costs, I see no real reason why more time couldn't be spent on making better, more glossy, campaign ads. Ads that tell a story, with better sound, better editing and great cinematography. The talent for these kinds of ads already exists. The understanding of how to create such an ad already exists. I don't understand why the current campaigns won't take some extra money and put it into the production of an ad -- rather than spending little on the ad itself and more on buying spots for their ads.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at August 2, 2004 03:51 PMThe latest issue of the Atlantic has an article on this very problem.
Posted by: jjg at August 2, 2004 06:19 PM
It's not clear to me why "more glossy, campaign ads. Ads that tell a story, with better sound, better editing and great cinematography" would be more effective.
Posted by: Ryan Schroeder at August 2, 2004 09:50 PM
"It's not clear to me why "more glossy, campaign ads. Ads that tell a story, with better sound, better editing and great cinematography" would be more effective."
I agree. Like any ad, no matter how you dress it up, it's still a sales pitch.
Posted by: Ken at August 2, 2004 11:06 PM
If an ad doesnt appeal to anyone who would watch it and who in hell would know what the pitch is?!
Posted by: SK at August 3, 2004 11:04 AM
Better ads could potentially make a difference. They don't necessarily have to be more glossy, just better produced. Everything at the national level gets so over-calculated that oftentimes creative thoughts and production values get pushed to the back.
In Minnesota's last Governor's race (post-Jesse), Pawlenty had ads done with a better-than-normal production value VH1 Pop-up Video-style that I know caught my attention. It was a positive ad talking about Pawlenty's background and family. I'm not a big fan of all of Pawlenty's policy ideas, but the ads caught my attention and certainly humanized him a little more for me. Whether those types of ads were what got him elected or not is difficult to prove, but he did win in a State where anyone [Jesse Ventura] has a chance.
Posted by: Fargoboy at August 5, 2004 12:44 AM
