The connection between the signs and the intergenerational appeal is heartwarming. Try and convince me that the focus on David Briley's son will not pull at the people most likely to vote on August 2: women with families. Rather than making some kind of vague reference to the city, the ad brings it back down to the level of neighborhoods, which connects with people more readily than, for example, the recently released Bob Clement "good now/great later city" ad.
I think people already have sons. I think they want good schools and a safer neighborhood. People want to see a leader who is passionate about fixing things, not a guy that lives next door and has kid that will suffer the same fate that their's will, so they can what? All go down together? This is a tough city, and it needs tough leadership...that means Clement.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Mr. Clement is so passionate in his commercial that they had a voice-over speaking for him in nearly all of it. Passionate is the last adjective I would apply to Bob Clement.
ReplyDeleteYou underestimate the power of a child to evoke feelings that attach to a candidate. I would wager that this commercial connects to the voters most likely to vote on August 2: women with children. Clement's commercial, on the other hand, is technocratic in the absence of a personality.
I'm sure critics said the same thing about Bill Purcell when he ran as "Neighborhoods Mayor" that you are saying about Mr. Briley.
This commercial will also serve to remind us there are political families such as Briley and Clement who view the legacy of their ancestors as an entitlement to public office. Let's get rid of the old boy network and take a new direction.
ReplyDeleteVote for Karl Dean!
I recently moved out of Davidson County, so I technically don't have a horse in this race . . . but it seems to me that if Briley has to trot out his son and, on top of that, remind people what his last name is, he's grasping at straws.
ReplyDeleteDon't confuse having a politically involved family with "old-school politician". There's nothing old-school about David - he's got a video titled "Not your grandparent's Mayor Briley" which I think makes the succinct point that a family legacy of service does not an old-school politician make.
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