I happened to be channel surfing past an LA station (on satellite) the other night, and saw a commercial for Phil Angelides.
I thought it was one of the worst political commercials I've ever seen. I don't live in CA and don't claim to know much about CA politics, but I thought the ad really sucked.
I have two major objections to the commercial: it's in black and white, and the tagline is stupid.
Start by considering that virtually everyone has seen Schwarzenegger in glorious color on their TV screens or 20 feet tall on a movie screen. His appearance is impeccable and dynamic. Angelides, on the other hand, looks a little less exciting than Gray Davis (which probably suggests checking his pulse). So how does he try to overcome this image disadvantage?
He (his ad firm of course) picks boring images and then shows them in black and white, making them look even more boring. I have a 19 year old daughter who almost refuses to watch anything in B&W, no matter how good it is. Black and white virtually disappeared in the 1960s, except for some arty uses and an occasional film where it's been applied dynamically, with use of light and shadow to make it visually interesting and appealing. The ad doesn't do that either.
The copy for the ad isn't especially bad (or good either), but the tagline is horrible: "A leader not an actor". Now apparently Angelides is the current state treasurer - a job which is not especially dynamic or even understood by most voters (I'd have a hard time detailing exactly what he does).
The tagline is used a couple times in the ad, and when I first saw the ad, it left me with a kind of cognitive dissonance. The ad talks about things Angelides did in the past, and a few things Arnold did wrong. Is that what characterizes a leader - resting on his laurels and criticizing his opponent? I'd think a leader might want to, you know, lead - propose new directions, identify problems and suggest solutions, that kind of thing. Also, a tired-looking guy in black and white certainly doesn't look like an actor (unless the film is Night of the Living Dead), but he doesn't really look like a leader either. So I thought the line was jarring.
When it crossed my mind tonight, I found I reacted to the semantics of the tagline too. Sure, Arnold is an "actor" who stars in movies, but in the political and social realm, an actor is someone who takes actions, does things, gets things done. Angelides whole commercial says to me he certainly isn't that kind of guy, and his tagline makes that clear.
Comparing it to ads by people like Wellstone or Feingold, Angelides' ad has about zero impact. Even compared to some of the more traditional ads I've seen here in WA - for people like Gary Locke (almost as boring as Angelides), Nethercutt's House races, or even Helen "proof you can fuck yourself stupid" Chenoweth running for House in ID a few years back, the Angelides ad just doesn't measure up.
Those are all from a while ago - I don't watch much local or network TV anymore, so I don't see that many current political ads, but Angelides' ad looked like something from my childhood - the Eisenhower era. Actually, I've seen Ike's ads, and they were better too.
This isn't a comment on Anglides' abilities or positions - he might be a very good candidate. But he needs to create an image and sell himself and his ideas (presumably he has some) to voters.