In Which We Critique the Donald J. Trump Campaign’s First TV Ad

By Patrick Coffee 

Oh hey, are you having a nice, conflict-free Friday so far? Maybe you need just a little bit more Donald Trump in your life.

After spending exactly $0 on advertising in the apparent belief that earned media is always better, a newly regretful Trump launched his first-ever TV ad on the same day his now-former campaign manager resigned due to the fact that he is a proven felon, or something.

The ad is pretty much exactly what you would expect from The Donald. It begins by explaining away a potentially emasculating loss to Hillary Clinton (“rigged system”) and goes from there.

So much for subtlety, which sources claim is not particularly effective in advertising anyway.

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He hits his key talking points over and over again: foreigners are bad; immigrants are often criminals who end up collecting benefits; America shouldn’t harbor any refugees; Hillary Clinton won’t protect you from them … nothing new here, really. As the ad itself says, “It’s more of the same, but worse.” The spot is actually titled “Two Americas,” and if you don’t know what he’s talking about now then you never will.

From a strategic perspective, will this ad convince anyone who isn’t already into the Donald that they should maybe check him out? We would be surprised. It’s very gloom and doom, though, so score one for consistency.

Also kind of nice how they switched “great” to “safe” in the tagline, right? Clever!

We have no idea who made this spot and can’t imagine that anyone will step forward to claim it. But remember when Trump hired the fictional “Draper Sterling” to make his huge banner ads? Whatever happened to them?

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