Category: Republican Party

A copywriter named Louis Wittig from advertising agency Grey has started his own super-pac-with-a-difference.  He describes the organisation as a collection of people “who find Donald Trump so absolutely annoying that we just have to do something about it.”

Their plan is to raise small amounts of money from like-minded Americans using crowd-funding platform GoFundMe and use the cash to run advertisements that campaign against Trump.

To get the ball rolling, they’re initially trying to raise $1530 to run a press ad in one of New Hampshire’s biggest newspapers two days before the New Hampshire Primary.

The ads he’s prepared (examples above) are brilliantly written and are art directed in a refreshing modern way.  And. more importantly, the whole idea of a ‘people’s super pac’ is just awesome.

One of Sen. Ted Cruz’s Super Pac’s (supportive but independent campaign groups) has released a new ad aggressively attacking Trump’s record on abortion.

The footage is taken from Trump’s appearance on TV news programme ‘meet the press’ in 1999.

Subsequent to that interview, in 2011, Trump renounced those views, but that hasn’t stopped Ted Cruz’s supporters going after him.

There’s a big evangelical voter base in Iowa that seem to be moving away from Cruz (and Carson) and towards Trump.  This is clearly Cruz’s attempt to stem the flow.

Trump has also come under fire for not being a ‘proper’ conservative, given his previous record of donating to Democratic candidates – including Hillary Clinton – and mixed form on immigration.

This ad, as well as appealing to evangelicals, is trying to remind those voters who have a nagging suspicion about Trump’s true intentions, that he could be the sort of candidate who says one thing in the primaries before tacking to the centre ground in the run-off for the White House.

Creatively, it’s simple but very effective.  It has all the stalwarts of quality political communication: intellectual clarity, provocative imagery and good ol’ fashioned repetition.

 
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has decided to unveil his presidential campaign logo piece by piece over the course of nine days on his Instagram account.

It has certainly created some noise around his candidacy, which is fairly impressive given 12 Republicans have already declared that they’re seeking the nomination.

The campaign deciding to make a big deal out of their logo might seem like a big and unnecessary risk, as design and branding is famously subjective and ripe for ridicule.

However, the real risk is that his candidacy announcement is completely ignored. By taking a risk he’s made sure that people are at least talking about him. Very smart.

Watch the above advert ‘Obamaville’ by Rick Santorum’s campaign all the way through… Did you see it??

If not, watch this:

Santorum’s campaign have been caught using subliminal techniques in their advertising to try to build a cognitive connection between US President Barak Obama with the President and dictator of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This really is an all new low for political advertising, the Santorum candidacy and the Republican Party.  It’s so morally bankrupt that it’s almost comical.

Wesleyan Media Project have released data which shows the massive extent to which Romney and his supporters dominated the Florida airwaves.  Romney and his SuperPacs ran almost 13,000 ads on broadcast television across the state, whilst Gingrich and his supporters have aired only 200 spots.

Newt is fighting an advertising battle reminiscent of King Leonidas and his famous 300.  With such huge numbers against him, Newt needs find his creative equivalent of the ‘Hot Gates’ of Thermopylae.

If Newt can create copy which has enough magic to go viral (as Will.I.AM managed to do for Obama in 2008), he could make Romney’s numbers count for nothing.