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Thursday, September 07, 2006

Open Thread: What's Your Favorite Ad This Year?

Posted by James L.

I may as well fess up: I'm an ad junkie. Few things excite me more in this post-Labor Day period than watching campaigns unveil their new ads. To be sure, there's a lot of crap out there, but as the Connecticut Senate primary showed, the 30 second TV spot still has the power to turn a seemingly futile race on its head.

Today saw the release of two powerful ads. First was this gripping Ned Lamont ad--his first new ad on the air since his primary win:

The other was this remarkable web ad for Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign in NY-20 against thuggish Republican incumbent John Sweeney. Sweeney's campaign has produced some truly vile campaign ads targeting Gillibrand and her family, lobbing just about every epithet at her from "war profiteer" to "America hater" (the latter is not his exact phrasing, but that's the gist of it). Gillibrand's team have responded with this web ad featuring Academy Award nominee David Straithairn (a NY-20 resident and a concerned citizen himself), who here is reprising his role as Edward R. Murrow from Goodnight & Goodluck, this time targeting Sweeney instead of McCarthy. (MyDD has more here.) Another gripping and surprising ad that should garner Gillibrand some positive buzz.

Some of my other favorite ads this year have been for Jon Tester (Creating a Buzz), Dan Maffei (Not Listening), and, while he may not be my favorite candidate of the cycle, pretty much everything put out by Harold Ford, Jr. has been very sharp.

How about you? Have you seen any good ads that have slipped past the national blog radar? What's your favorite ad this year? Please post a link to your favorite ad in the comments. YouTube links are preferred for the fast loading times and ease of use for everybody. If your favorite ad is not on YouTube, and you have the means to do so, please be proactive and upload it to YouTube for the campaign's benefit. If any campaign has not thrown up their TV or web-only video on YouTube, they're clearly behind the curve in terms of message distribution in the internet age.

Update: I'm liking Sherrod Brown's new ad on trade, too.

Posted at 04:54 PM in 2006 Elections, Media | Technorati

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Comments

No question, the Tester "buzz cut" ad is my favorite.

As far as production values are concerned, all the Santorum ads are exceptionally well-done and well-lit, with "Peace Sign" probably the most effective.

Posted by: Adam B at September 7, 2006 07:22 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Ford has had great ads. A new independent poll released today showed a tied race. Put more of those 911 ads on and Ford can win this thing!

Posted by: jkfp2004 at September 7, 2006 07:44 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The production values of Spitzer's ads have also all been really high.

Posted by: DavidNYC at September 7, 2006 07:50 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgM3sfVD3r4

This is a great Jim Pederson ad. AZ should still be in everyone's sights, especially once we pass next tuesday! Graf in district 8 and we've picked up our second leans democrat district!

Posted by: jerzay at September 7, 2006 08:30 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The "No Decency" ad today from the Gillibrand campaign was produced by Jimmy Siegel the same guy that has been doing Eliot Spitzer's ads and getting rave reviews for them.

The first ad the Gillibrand campaign aired regarding Sweeney's "Skiing vacation" was also very good. Excellent use of humor to riducle the opponent and knock him off his game. It took him months to regain his footing and figure out how to get on the offensive.

Posted by: Andrew C. White at September 7, 2006 08:43 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Tester's ad is hilarious! He is such a cool guy. I wish VA was lucky enough to have a fella like him representing us instead of that asshat George Allen.

Santorum also has some good adds. Even my keen Democratic brain gets kinda warm and fuzzy seeing his kids talk about their dad. "Ignore the kids Alec! Vote the Bastard OUT!!!" "But they're so CUTE! " I can see how he's closing the gap. Hope Casey will take the gloves off soon...

Posted by: AlecBGreen at September 7, 2006 11:01 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Love Tester's ad, Gillibrand's would play well in many other Districts too.
You know how Republicans are always invoking/quoting using JFK? Well, here's a different spin on that concept, from the Webb campaign and billed as his "first tv ad":
http://www.webbforsenate.com/ads/

Posted by: Predictor at September 8, 2006 06:09 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment