Why Mitt Romney is losing the TV campaign ad war, again
| Washington
With just a little over a month to go before the Iowa caucus, we鈥檙e starting to see more ads by the GOP candidates. Mitt Romney has recently released two ads in New Hampshire - the first, , drew criticism for taking an Obama quote completely out of context. The second is a positive (if somewhat bland) ad and the need to cut spending.聽
This morning, the Associated Press reported that Mitt Romney is launching new ads in Iowa Friday on the .
Which got us thinking: if there鈥檚 one thing that seems to encapsulate the problems with Romney鈥檚 candidacy, it鈥檚 his ads. They鈥檙e not bad. They just somehow lack personality - they don鈥檛 give you any intrinsic sense of who he really is.
This was true for Romney throughout the 2008 cycle. Decoder recently went back and watched a whole bunch of 2007-2008 ads from the Republican candidates, and our main takeaway was this: Romney got creamed in the ad wars.
The undisputed, hands-down winner for best GOP ads in 2008 was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Remember the ? (鈥淢y plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck Norris.鈥�) Or the folksy Christmas ad? Pure brilliance.
The runner-up for best ads that year was clearly John McCain. While McCain鈥檚 ads didn鈥檛 have quite the entertainment value of Huckabee鈥檚, McCain used the incredibly effectively. And frankly, since his ads seemed more presidential than Huckabee鈥檚, they may have been better in ways that counted most.
Either way, Romney鈥檚 ads seemed by comparison. He also went negative more than anyone else.
Interestingly, while the whole point of ads is to manufacture an (admittedly artificial) image of the candidate, they often still tend to reveal something genuine. Watch enough of them, and you do begin to get a feel for who these candidates are - for better or worse. So far this year, we鈥檝e had the Rick Perry ad where he (they couldn鈥檛 get a better take than that?). And the Perry ad where he calls himself And of course, Herman Cain鈥檚 weirdest-ever web ad featuring his .
Starting Friday, Cain will begin in Iowa, which somehow strikes us as classic Cain. It鈥檚 got a strong economic message, a touch of humor (鈥渢his is baad鈥�), and of course, the 鈥淚 Am America鈥� theme song (though we confess we can鈥檛 listen to that song anymore without picturing Stephen Colbert jamming away).
Since Romney has only recently begun spending money on ads, we suppose he may release some better ones in the weeks to come. But based on his track record last time, we sort of doubt it. We鈥檙e just waiting to see what Newt Gingrich comes up with.
Want more?
- Check out nearly all the candidate ads to date (most of which have been web-only) in this聽聽courtesy of the Political Communication Lab at Stanford University听.
Like your politics unscrambled? Check out
