A good message, but who will see it?

Do you trust your government? Ron George doesn’t.

It’s an interesting commercial, although given the cuts and canned applause it’s obvious the spot was done in a studio.

But look at the message it conveys. We all know the government rarely deserves our trust in this day and age, and Maryland is a prime example. The waste and fraud run rampant in this state, and decades of one-party rule encourages the spigot to remain full-on. We all know this.

So it was interesting that the question was teed up for him in such a way. The commercial is a “genuine fake” in the sense that it wasn’t recorded at the original debate at which Ron uttered those words, but restating it in the better setting is somewhat creative. Unlike the Larry Hogan radio commercial where I found the message is somewhat cluttered by the crowd noise (because it was recorded live) this works rather effectively.

Of course, the question is who will get to see it? Needless to say, I’m giving Ron a little bit of earned media from this but I’ll bet I’m one of the few bloggers who will because others are backing other candidates. With only a modest amount in the bank and no prospect for public financing, the buy will probably be a limited, cable-only buy – if there’s any commercial space left available between the plethora of state and local candidates who may be in their own primary battles around the major media markets.

Now there is a little bit of good news – in my opinion, the audio from the ad can work as a radio ad as well, with a little bit of work and addition of a spoken authority line. It’s a money-saving measure and by all accounts Ron desperately needs to get the most bang for his bucks.

9 thoughts on “A good message, but who will see it?”

  1. Thank you Michael for bringing attention to Ron’s most profound comment during the March 13th Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Forum in Anne Arundel County. It was also repeated on Ron’s Facebook page on March 13 with 376 Likes 33 comments and 61 shares!
    mp

  2. “The commercial was a genuine fake”
    Mike, I cannot believe that you printed that statement! I was there at the event where that question was asked from a person in the audience. Ron’s response was just as it was in the ad.
    I am surprised that you did not vet the authenticity of the comments prior to commenting on them.

  3. Jim, read the paragraph before. I don’t doubt the response was the same, but this version was done in a studio. You wouldn’t have that sort of lighting and cameras available at a debate site.

    No doubt the words are genuine, just the set up to appear as if he’s at a debate is fake. Marianne got the idea, but I decided to rework the paragraph so it didn’t appear he had scripted it all. I remember seeing the Facebook post so I didn’t doubt that was his reply.

  4. Hey guys this is Tommy Rodriguez, Ron’s campaign manager. We shot this commercial the day after the Anne Arundel debate. This commercial is nearly verbatim the answer Ron gave at the forum, and we felt it was an answer that needed to be filmed and shared with voters across the state. We went back to the same venue as the debate and filmed it right on the same stage with a professional camera. Ron recited his answer from memory.

    Thanks for writing up a post on the commercial Michael! Hope this helps!

  5. So I was exactly right. I didn’t doubt what he said, although I didn’t know you used the same setting. I do find it an effective commercial, as I said.

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