Campaign Ads

On the one hand, after three weeks, Kerry is finally trying to respond to the Swifties:

The Democratic Party launched a costly round of ads Friday to buttress John Kerry's credentials to be commander in chief as the White House accused the Massachusetts senator of "losing his cool" over attacks on his war record.

"John Kerry is a fighter and he doesn't tolerate lies from others," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter shot back at President Bush's spokesman.

Undeterred, the anti-Kerry group that provoked the furor distributed a second commercial to the news media and said it would begin airing next week in Nevada and New Mexico. The ad intersperses clips of a youthful Kerry talking about war atrocities during an appearance before Congress in 1971 with images of veterans condemning his testimony.

The Swifties' ad seems to have had the best bang for the buck of any low-budget campaign in political history:

The ad that drew Kerry's angry response on Thursday aired in only three states at a cost of well under $1 million. It features several Vietnam veterans who accuse Kerry of lying about the circumstances surrounding events for which he won his medals. Kerry received three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star while in Vietnam.

Even so, the Annenberg survey said "more than half the country has heard about or seen" the commercial - the result of widespread coverage on cable television and talk radio as well as the Internet.

Of course, the ad is devastating.

Speaking of ads, I saw the latest series of Kerry spots, the ones bashing the Administration over health insurance and proposing a program eerily similar to the administration's plan.

The wierd part? While the ads show lots of clips of people going about their business over a litany of healthcare problems.

But not only does Kerry's voice never appear in the spots, the footage of Kerry himself is always from a distance, with many other elements in the shot to distract attention from the candidate and his awkward, jerky physical delivery and his lurch-like visage.

What does this tell you about the Kerry campaign's strategery for presenting their candidate?

It's a rhetorical question, but feel free to answer anyway...

Posted by Mitch at August 23, 2004 07:00 AM | TrackBack