Here are a few nominees for worst (e.g., least effective, most cringe-inducingly lame, etc.) Virginia TV ads of 2014 so far. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section. Thanks.
1. This one is so mind-bogglingly stupid it defies belief. In short, Eric Cantor had an enormous advantage in terms of name ID, incumbency and money over the almost-completely-unknown Dave Brat. So what did Can’tor and his brilliant consultants do? That’s right, spend a s***-ton of money to launch ridiculous, completely non-credible attacks on Brat, effectively spending their own money to raise Brat’s name ID and make people look into his candidacy.
2. Lynwood Lewis came within 11 votes of losing a race he was supposed to win easily (at least that’s what the so-called “experts” kept saying), after running to the right, dissing/ignoring the “base,” etc. This ad epitomizes all that, using Republican framing (e.g., regulations are bad) and emphasizing working with Republicans, when what Lewis needed to do was fire up his district’s Democratic “base” voters. Does this lame ad get you fired up in any way, shape or form? Nope, didn’t think so.
3. This ad by conservadem Mike Hymes attacking his Republican opponent, Ben Chafin, is on the list mostly because of two things: a) it was a completely ineffective waste of (a lot of) money, as was Hymes’ entire ad campaign; and b) attacking defense attorneys for doing their job MIGHT be politically effective at times (obviously not in this special election for Virginia State Senate), but it’s pathetic nonetheless.
4. When I first watched this ad, my jaw literally dropped at how bad it was, from the cheesy music to some random people speaking the words “race,” “gender” and “orientation”…then finally the point, that these things don’t define who we are. Then, how does Euille talking about how his campaign’s all about “leadership, passion and know-how” (with a backdrop of Washington, DC monuments, for some reason) relate to anything that came before it in the ad? Got me. And neither did voters, apparently, as Euille received just 8% of the vote in the Democratic primary, and now may have opened himself up to a Mayoral primary challenge from 1 or more opponents. Talk about money NOT well spent!
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