Hotcards, Full Color Printing In The Nation

Read the previous post for part one of this series.

Odds are not everyone is going to overthink the bit of sign printing discussed in the last post quite to the degree that I have. In fact, as good as that copy is, it’s not the kind of copy that’s designed to really catch anyone’s attention. Rather, the slogan, in all its skillfulness, is probably striving to avoid drawing too much attention to itself by being utterly apolitical.

In the world of TV advertising, on the other hand, Obama’s ad copy folks are all about making us sit up and pay attention. In two new ads, one for West Virginia, and one for South Dakota, a voiceover by Obama concludes with the words, “I approved this message BECAUSE…”

Isn’t that neat? It made me react right away, because I’d never really heard anything like it before. We all know that the candidate voiceover of approval is necessary to the vaunted integrity of a campaign ad’s message, but it’s usually delivered as nothing more than a last-minute disclaimer, like “side effects may include…”

But in the case of these ads, the copy folks on the Obama campaign decided to turn that last-minute voiceover into a central aspect of the ad’s message. “I approve BECAUSE” – very nice technique for calling us out of TV ad-time stupor, and for encouraging us to feel a personal connection with the candidate, like he knows that the typical way of doing things in the world of ad copy is kind of lame and played out.

My name is Anne Stewart, and I approve this message because it’s fresh, surprising, and personable.