The Art of the Message

To take a more fine-grained look at three of the spots in the JWT survey, I examined two primarily “emotive” ads, Hillary Clinton’s “Proud” and Mitt Romney’s “American Family,” and one that was more issues focused, John McCain’s “Love America.” I looked for what story they were trying to tell (the take-home message); how effectively they reinforced or tried to dispel positive and negative aspects of each candidate’s “brand”; and how successfully they got the voter to feel what they were trying to induce the voter to feel.

Clinton’s “Proud” ad, which focuses on her connections with her mother and daughter, is strong for multiple reasons.