Comments on: Local political ad

By: colin maloney

colin maloney — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:29:30 +0000

As someone who has put a lot of time into this campaign, as a volunteer, I’d like to thank you for posting it. The ad has been amazingly popular and has gotten Steve a lot of national “earned media,” which is vital when you’re running a campaign against a much better funded opponent.

As to the masculinity issue, I think the ad is addressing the idea we saw in the 2000 and 2004 elections where the Bush camp tried to portray their candidate as a “regular” guy and Gore and Kerry as pointy headed intellectuals who couldn’t relate to “average folks.” I read the ad is a critique of the question, “but who would you want to have a beer with?” (Not a great criteria for choosing someone who will shouldering some of the most difficult questions the government faces.)

Here’s an ad that proceeded the “Beer with Steve” ad. It’s a take off of the old game show, To Tell the Truth. Both ads were produced with Eichenbaum & Associates, the firm behind Senator Russ Feingold’s unconventional ad campaign.

Novick’s positions on various policies can be found here.

By: Eliza

Eliza — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:44:35 +0000

Thanks for pointing that out Raechel, I was thinking the same thing.

OTOH, I do think Novick is willing to make fun of his “non-masculine” traits in ways that directly contradict them with the “traditional masculinity” (at least as it exists in politics), like here.

By: Raechel

Raechel — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:54:18 +0000

Neat. Especially the last bit. However, before the “surprise” (I’ve seen a few local ads featuring disabled candidates and they all have this sort of “surprise factor”, which is worth noting), I was struck by the overt masculinity of the ad- “vote for me, I’d be a good drinking buddy”. It could be politics as usual, of course, but I suspect the manly scenario was chosen because men with disabilities are often seen as weak or feminized.