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Ad Wars: Begich's 'Car Wash'
Sometimes a television advertisement can say more than any speech.
Take Barack Obama's "Moment" ad during the primary season or John McCain's "624787" ad.
Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D), who is challenging Sen. Ted Stevens (R) this fall, is up with a new ad that fits into that same category -- using the power of a 30-second television ad to effectively deliver the message that the corruption of its public officials is hurting the state.
Here's the ad:
Why does it work? Because it looks different than most ads; it's not just a candidate looking into a camera and telling voters why the incumbent is bad. Instead, Begich's media consultants -- Mark Putnam and Steve Murphy -- decided to show rather than tell voters about the problems in the state and its impact on their daily lives.
An ongoing federal investigation into influence-peddling by an oil and gas company has ravaged the state Republican party and led to the raiding of Stevens' home by federal investigators.
That investigation has led to a series of indictments of Republican state legislators and has served as the impetus for the takeover of the state GOP by reform-minded politicians led by Gov. Sarah Palin.
Stevens, who has served in the Senate since 1968, is very much a part of the old guard that Begich is proposing to clean out. While Begich does not directly refer to Stevens by name in the ad (although the guy at the end bears more than a passing resemblance to the senator), it's clear that the Democrat is hoping to lump Stevens in with the brand problems of the state Republican party.
Public polling suggests Begich's ad will find a receptive audience. A new poll conducted by Research 2000 for the liberal website Daily Kos showed Begich at 47 percent to 45 percent for Stevens -- a statistical dead heat. More troubling for the incumbent were his favorable ratings. Just 36 percent of voters said they felt favorably toward him while 61 percent said they felt unfavorably; among independents, the numbers were even more stark -- 30 percent favorable to 66 percent unfavorable.
By Chris Cillizza |
July 22, 2008; 2:25 PM ET
| Category:
Ad Wars
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Comments
Posted by: Bill | July 23, 2008 4:52 PM | Report abuse
It figures. While the Democrats, the Obamanistas and the Democratic Party--controlled MSM are making a big deal crying their crocodile tears of outrage over the the Sen. Ted Stephens alleged corruption scandal in Alaska, none are interested in the Countrywide Financial scandal going on right under their noses. With Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad getting special VIP mortage rates that was saving them about $75,000 each over the life of the mortage from Angelo Mozilo, Chairman-founder of Countrywide (who last year pocketed $142 million just before Countrywide started sinking like a rock) one would think the MSM would smell a rat. With Democrat Chris Dodd being the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and Democrat Kent Conrad the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, them getting a $75,000 kickback each makes this scandal much, much worse than the one in Alaska. So were are the MSM's handwringing and crocodile teared journalists, editors and publishers when a kickback scandal is happening right under their noses but involving Democrats rather than Republicans?
Posted by: madhatter | July 23, 2008 12:38 PM | Report abuse
Unfortunately for the GOP in Alaska, Gov. Palin is now embroiled in a huge scandal over the firing of the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner. Supposedly Palin wanted the commissioner to fire a state trooper who is currently in a messy divorce with her sister, and he refused and was fired for it.
The GOP dominated legislature is talking about formal investigations. It's so bad for Palin that the Lt. Gov who is running in the GOP primary agaisnt Rep. Young pulled all of his ads that mentioned her name and is running far away from her.
This ad is even more timely in the face of the Governor's scandal.
Posted by: karin1492 | July 23, 2008 11:05 AM | Report abuse
IMO, the Rasmussen polls are decent from October 15 through E-day, but completely freakin' worthless outside of that.
IVR is simply not a useful polling strategy at times when the electorate is not fully engaged. The hangup rate among undecideds and people with non-rabid opinions creates to big a self-selection problem and skews the resolution, making the polls coarser and far less useful.
Just look at Rasmussen results for pretty much anything right now and notice how few undecideds there are even for down-ballot races.
I think it's a good concept, and pretty well executed, but a case where the reality of the American electorate gets in the way of it being truly useful for 23 months each cycle.
Posted by: OutToLaunch | July 23, 2008 10:38 AM | Report abuse
Even better than DailyKos, a Rasmussen Reports poll has Begich up by 9 (52-44)
Posted by: Brendan | July 22, 2008 8:10 PM | Report abuse
Does Begich own a carwash?
Good ad.
OutToLaunch, thanks for the link.
---------------------------------
AlanInMissoula, blert, and Boutan, pls eml me at
Mark_in_Austin@operamail.com.
All will be revealed.
Posted by: MarkInAustin | July 22, 2008 7:04 PM | Report abuse
It's a good ad. Novel, funny, and definitely gets its point across. The real question is: how does it play in Anchorage/Fairbanks/Juneau?
CC, can we have more of these and fewer of the McC/BHO ads?
Posted by: mnteng | July 22, 2008 6:54 PM | Report abuse
Chris, you throw around the phrase "statistical dead heat" way too much. It's also not true.
This will explain better than I can.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/07/and-here-i-thought-john-kerry-lost.html
Posted by: Spike | July 22, 2008 5:04 PM | Report abuse
It's a nice piece.
Another good piece I've seen personally is the one Michael Skelly is running in his challenge of Culberson here in the Houston area (John "NASA is a giant waste of money" Culberson, that is).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WoCYFMjY-TI
The theme is your basic "familyman/businessman" fare, but I find its presentation quite good. It helps that his kids are just the right age too; any younger and they probably couldn't pull it off; any older and its not cute.
Of course it helps that Skelly has a personal fortune greater than some small countries to put ads on the air from June-November.
Posted by: OutToLaunch | July 22, 2008 3:09 PM | Report abuse
Chris, can you tell us who is doing Begich's media please?
thanks
Tom in Chicago.
Posted by: Tom B. | July 22, 2008 2:49 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
Why does it work? First because its funny. Second, while its mainly an attack add, it is not personal, not mentioning any names. Finally, it has positive aspects by making a couple of specific proposals.
However, the ad done for John Boccieri and mentioned on Slate, is better (and funnier).