I am constantly impressed with the standard of political advertising in the US. Their attack ads are superb, and there are none better than those by Ladd Ehlinger Jr.
Ladd Ehlinger Jr. jokes that he’s only shot campaign ads for three people, and he’s managed to get two of them named “worst person in the world” by left-wing MSNBC talk-show host Keith Olbermann.
But even while bestowing Alabama agriculture commissioner candidate Dale Peterson with the dishonor, Olbermann seems to get the joke.
“You can tell, you can look at Olbermann and you can tell, he’s trying to look angry but he’s having a really hard time doing it,” Ehlinger said while laughing in an interview with The Daily Caller.
And that — the over-the-top theatrics, the caricature, and the fact that you’re never quite sure how seriously to take Peterson, because you can’t tell how seriously he’s taking himself — is the whole point, says the 41-year-old filmmaker.
“On television, you’re buying lazy people who are too fat to hit the mute button during commercials,” Ehlinger said. “On the internet, nobody has to watch your stupid ad. You have to come up with something interesting and entertaining for them to look at.”
It’s a potent strategy. Collectively, the spots Ehlinger has created have reached more than a million viewers on YouTube and have been replayed on cable news shows, reaching millions more.
His ads are very hard hitting. Here is my favourite.
His Les Philip ad, “A Story of Two Men” is now famous, especially for it’s ending.
He has two main strategies for preparing the ads.
That the ads have alienated a few people along the way is part of the point. Ehlinger calls one of his strategies the “brier patch.”
“The idea is that you state a position that you know is not going to be popular to everybody,” he said. “You state a position that you know is going to get some people upset — specifically so the other side that agrees with you will come to your defense.”
Ehlinger calls his other tactic the “Nazareth strategy,” coined in reference to the Biblical verse in which Nathaniel doubts Jesus by asking, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
“I guess what it means is you are more impressed with someone who is a success outside of your hometown,” Ehlinger said.
In other words, as soon as a homegrown candidate shows up on national TV, his standing jumps in the eyes of locals. An appearance on Fox News can be huge for a grassroots campaign.
WATCH THE FIRST DALE PETERSON AD
“You have to realize they’re all underdog candidates,” Ehlinger said.
His ads are very effective, they can literally turn around a campaign. In one run-off his candidate lagged 20 points and was being out-spent by his opponent.
Barber, a Tea Party favorite, helped force GOP frontrunner Martha Roby into a runoff, but still lagged by approximately 20 points in the June 1 primary.
“We ran our initial primary race on just hard, grassroots efforts — going door to door, driving a lot,” Barber said. “But we were still behind.”
With just over a month left before the runoff, Barber knew he could only shake so many hands in the 16-county district. His campaign was being outspent almost seven to one, too.
“In the primary my counterpart spent half a million dollars to my 75 thousand dollars,” Barber said.
What he needed, Barber explained, was to marry his message with the right director. Ehlinger was his man.
Once they connected, the production of the “Gather Your Armies” ad, from conception to final product, took about eight days.
That ad got major attention. Some of it distinctly negative.
Criticism of Barber has been much harsher than that of Phillip or Peterson. The campaign has received hate mail. Keith Olbermann, in a profanity-laced rant during the aforementioned “worst person in the world” segment, called the spot an “incitement of treason,” and announced his hope that Barber would be thrown in jail.
But the ad has had the intended effect, too, so much so that Barber cut a second spot.
Ehlinger has some sage advice for politicians that apply just as much in New Zealand as they do the USA.
It’s what he hopes to do for others, too. Ehlinger is mum on specifics, but says he is currently working with approximately four additional campaigns. The biggest problem, he says, is finding candidates that are willing to step out on a limb.
“A lot of politicians are boring. And you know, they play it safe,” Ehlinger said. “Mitt Romney’s not going to make a viral video, because he’s too blow-dried. So the main thing is to try to find politicians who aren’t sitting there with memorized talking points.”
And that’s exactly Ehlinger’s advice, for his own clients and for others — ditch the contrived storyline and stop pulling punches. A candidate can’t be everything to everyone, so maybe it’s time to stop pandering and take a stand.
“People respect you when you say what you believe,” Ehlinger said, “even if you’re saying something that a third of the electorate thinks is crazy.”
Too many politicians are tan, brown or taupe. Too afraid to stand for something because they might offend someone. Ultimately though you need to get elected to make a difference and that is the hardest part.
