With the election fast approaching, I must say I've been quite disappointed with Missouri's local political ads. "Emmanuel Cleaver will raise your taxes", "Jeanne Patterson will outsource your job", "If I were a recruiter, I would hire Claire McCaskill", "She has great hair". These are not unique (well, besides the hair one), and they don't show the least bit of local flavor. Let me tell you a story.

When I lived in Georgia, Paul Coverdell (pronounced "Coverdale") was running for the senate. In one of his ads, he had an old woman sitting on a rocking chair sing the following song with the most pronounced southern drawl I've ever heard:

Vote Paul Coverdell in the Senate and put Wyche Fowler out
Wyche has proved we don't need him in it and Georgia wants him out
But with Paul Coverdell we'll have a leader of that there is no doubt
So vote Paul Coverdell in the Senate and put Wyche Fowler out

Think about that for a minute, and some things should come to mind. 1) The current senator's name was friggin' Wyche, gotta love Georgia. 2) This was a local ad that ran only for a month or two, yet I still remember the words 10 years later. This has to be the most effective political ad ever, not because it made me vote for Paul Coverdell (I was about 14 years old at the time), but if you heard it once you never forgot the damn thing.

Paul Coverdell ended up winning the election and remained in the senate until his unfortunate death due to a cerebral hemorrhage in 2000. I don't know a single thing about his time in office, he could have appointed the KKK grand wizard as Governor for all I know, but he was truly a pioneer in the field of political advertising. Republican and Democrat alike could stand to take a page from his playbook.

Posted by: Brian at October 27, 2004 10:49 AM