Friday, January 4, 2008

WSJ picks Iowa TV spot winners and losers

Mike Huckabee was one of the big winners in Iowa--and in the Wall Street Journal's roundup of candidate TV spots:
The ad plays on an online phenomenon that attributes increasingly bizarre superpowers to Mr. Norris. Mixing serious politics with humor, the spot showcases Mr. Norris's endorsement of Mr. Huckabee's positions while also suggesting the candidate is hip enough to get an Internet in-joke
Huckabee also earns bonus points from SBB for riding Norris's coattails for all they're worth, including photo ops with young caucus-goers like Fort Wayne's own Patrick McAllister. The WSJ also liked spots for John McCain and Bill Richardson, but had few good things to say about the messages produced by the Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul campaigns:
Other ads for Mr. Paul have adopted a substance-over-style approach that's in sync with his campaign's grass-roots ethic. But this ad lacks substance, too, leaving out any specifics on issues...

[Giuliani's] ad tried to be both a warm-and-fuzzy holiday spot and an explainer of Mr. Giuliani's goals for governing -- and failed at both
But who was the real winner of the pre-caucus ad blitz? As SBB noted earlier, that would anyone selling airtime on Iowa TV.

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