Watch Out Jeff Foxworthy...
Filed under: Election 2008, The Dagobah System
There's a new funny man on the block and gosh darn if he doesn't look an awful lot like New Mexico Governor and Presidential Candidate Bill Richardson:
Two things surprised me about the ads:
1.) They're actually pretty amusing.
2.) They're actually pretty effective. (In the sense that they made me think about Bill Richardson for 60 seconds, which hadn't really happened to me before. Ever. In my life.)
The spots got us wondering, why is it so rare for candidates to use humor in their ads?
"Humor has its pros and cons," says Evan Tracey of TNS Media Intelligence, a company that helps campaigns hone their political ads. "Funny works when you want to get noticed (but) jokes are only good the first time you hear them - they become progressively less funny the more you hear or see them."
And the proof is kind of in the pudding. For instance, Wes Clark tried to bring the funny with an Outkast reference when he was running for President back in 2004, and even though the ad made a lot of people laugh, it clearly wasn't enough. (I think Andre 3000 actually got more votes than Clark in the Georgia primary.)
Mark Putnam is a partner at Murphy Putnam Media -- the people behind the Richardson ads. He says, "I don't think it's that the traditional ads don't work anymore. I think here we had a unique intersection of a candidate's record, personality, and his status in the race, and it really was a great way to showcase how much he's done in his career and at the same time give people a feel for him. Voters are always hungering for something that captures their attention and imagination, that's something that's been true from the beginning."
One thing to watch out for though if you are a candidate trying to use humor, make sure the joke's not on you:
Alas, Christopher Knight did not win that spot on the Rockingham County Board of Education, but he does have an awesome fake Light Saber to remind him of his time as a candidate.
And what about the guy in this Dos Equis ad? I mean, he's not officially running for anything, but can you imagine if he was? I think he could maybe win Emperor of The World or something.
2:28 PM ET | 05-10-2007 | permalink
