Less is more. Minor sins of this last week's political ads.

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I think I've mentioned a time or two that sometimes candidates can commit cardinal sins with their political advertising. Ads with problems so glaring they should be cast to perdition.

But there are plenty of minor sins out there (only 1 Hail Mary worth for us Catholics). If candidates could tighten things up, I think they might find themselves happier with the results. Take Arnie Hauge for instance....

This is a pretty decent ad. In fact, I like it. Name and office, attractive design, and bulleted points. But then he has to go and throw in that folksy crap with "Arnie says."

I'm of the opinion that it didn't earn him voters. It didn't enhance his credibility. All it did was make him pay for 2 more column inches. If he wanted to do that, why didn't he make everything bigger?

Exorcise that area from the ad, and you'll find not only is better, it's cheaper.

Senator Duane Sutton's guilty of the same minor sin. Great design, Name and office are bold and it makes it's point. but then it gets wordy. As the king of verbosity, I'm feeling my throne is in danger here.

Two tightly spaced paragraphs which basically say the same thing. Does anyone realize how short the voter's attention span is when reading the newspaper? If Duane cut out the entire first paragraph - "We've made strong efforts.." and left the rest starting with "The safety of our kids.." I'd call it an improvement. It would make his point quickly and effectively - and it would be easier to read.

Now go say two "glory be's", and don't do it again.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'll have to cordially disagree with you on this Mothers' Day, and promise I won't blog long. Without specific areas, sex offenders and drunk drivers, Sutton's ad would be just hollow cliched words. Who isn't for safety? True, he could have condensed it and said it a little better. The first ad is nice, I think, but I would have rather seen a small picture of him rather than that graphic of a tractor.Is he picking on farmers? If every day he has two different quips,it could be something that readers look for.
11:49 AM
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