Important Lessons For Advertisers In Attack Ad Blunders

The above spot has a lot more to say than meets the eye. On the surface it appears to be a typical, dopey election-year attack ad in the race for the governor seat in Wisconsin.

The dirty little secret of the ad, now echoed in another case in a West Virginia race, shows how the Internet has changed advertising, especially political advertising, forever.

If you script ads and do casting calls for an agency, pay attention.

After the above ad ran for for weeks in Wisconsin, some sleuthing turned up that the commercial wasn't even filmed in Wisconsin. That bar with Milwaukee Bucks NBA posters, the Milwaukee Brewers hats and the Wisconsin-t-shirted bar tender? Yep: not Wisconsin.

That political ads use (often bad) actors instead of real people will come as no surprise or scandal to voters. But local elections, by definition, have local appeal. To not shoot the ad in Wisconsin or at least be absolutely certain it couldn't be discovered as otherwise, is a boneheaded mistake.

Speaking of bad acting and boneheaded mistakes, welcome to the West Virginia race for senate. Echoing the blunder of the Republican Governor's Associaton in Wisconsin is a worse example by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in West Virginia.

Not only was it revealed that the ad depicting down-home heavily-accented local guys shot in elitist Philadelphia, but the casting call and script leaked as well. Politico obtained the casting sheet (yes, from Democrats) for the ad which noted, "We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks."

The rest of the call details were rather tame, with the outrage (see below) focusing on the fact that the spot was shot outside West Virginia and the use of "Hicky" to describe the state's residents.

Years ago, before the Internet, these kinds of details would probably not have warranted publishing. But it is a new world (brave with the promise of online anonymity).

The take-away for those working in commercials within a sector of even moderate controversy, political or otherwise, is that it must be a working assumption that the details behind the commercial are going to leak. Thusly, care should be taken in language and characterization so as to minimize potential backlash against an ad meant to accomplish exactly the opposite.

(On a somehwat related note, if a bit of clip art seems too perfect, it's likely somebody else is using it too and you will only end up embrassed, especially if it's a political ad.)