Jim Slattery is set to launch his ad campaign, releasing two 30-second spots–“Apollo” and “Young.” The ads basically have the same message: Pat Roberts is out of touch after 40 years in Washington and Jim Slattery is the change Kansas needs.
The production value, while not bad, won’t dazzle anyone–there is a lot of Slattery just talking directly into the camera. I’m also a little surprised that his campaign didn’t release a bio spot since he’s been out of office for more than a decade and has been under attack from Roberts.
Ads after the jump…
“Apollo”
“Young”
He’s smart to get on the air now. In fact, he’s already late, since he let his opponent get on-air to start to define him. Indeed, Slattery should spend all the money he’s raised NOW. He either gets traction and movement his direction in the polls, in which case new money should come in, and come in time for the fall spending — or he can forgetaboutit.
But these ads left me disappointed, almost hurting.
Downright hurting. They both made my eyes squint, like the candidate’s. It was NOT a good idea to film him in the bright light. Not to waste big money on “production values,” but how about a tarp rigged to put the camera in the shade while the sunshine blazes on the cornfield behind him? Let him look into a dark space surrounding the camera. His squinting made him look uncomfortable, and so made me feel uncomfortable.
And he talked too fast. I know everybody wants to touch all the favorite talking points. But we used to say in print journalism that a short article would get twice as many readers as one twice as long. Cut some words, slow the pace to a conversational rate, let me relax and hear what you say.
Finally, I had serious cognitive dissonance from the white-haired candidate talking about his opponent having been in Washington for 40 years. I’m not saying he should grab the Grecian formula, because Slattery looks pretty good for any age, but maybe he should look for another way to attack Roberts instead of age/length of service. (And especially since Slattery has been in D.C. a long time himself. Ahem.)
O.K. I’m hard to please, I know it. But so are the voters.
———————
Thanks for this diary.