Madison Avenue Comes To The Political Arena

These new ads from Bill Richardson are definitely not your grandpa's camapign ads, and when you're in the second tier and looking to break out, I think they're a great strategy.



I think the fact that Richardson opens the second ad with "I cut taxes" kind of misreads the Democratic primary electorate and their concerns (I could be wrong). But regardless of my support for Richardson, these represent a sea change in political advertising that I think is long overdue. In the age of TiVo you'd better have something that can cut through the clutter, something that can generate an audience online, and that means it has to be entertaining. It doesn't have to be funny (though that helps) but it has to hold the public's interest. The same old spots with a litany of accomplishments accompanied by moving text that says the same accomplishment just isn't going to cut it. Political ads have to be creative if they're going to get ahead of the curve. We saw a little of this in 2006, and in 2008 there's going to be even more. Ultimately I don't think ads are THAT important anymore, unless they get people talking the way something like this may do. Expect a small bump for Richardson from these.