Is the DNC’s big new ad buy a real attempt to change the conversation about Mitt Romney or is it just a ploy to get some free press coverage for a web video?
The answer to both questions appears to be yes.
The DNC’s hard-hitting new spot hits Romney where it hurts, and borrows a popular GOP advertising concept to do it: the fake movie preview. From Tim Pawlenty to Rick Perry to Herman Cain, the presidential field has been lousy (and we do mean lousy) with movie trailer-style campaign ads.
The new DNC TV spot, which casts Romney as a man with two identities battling with himself, masters the form. It’s running in several swing states and ties into a larger web-based campaign that pushes an even longer version of the anti-Romney movie trailer.
The ad’s arrival was heralded as a Big Deal, signaling the Democrats are digging in on Romney and ignoring the rest of the field. That’s not really new — the DNC has been dinging Romney for weeks while paying far less attention to the other Republicans running for the nomination against him. But the specter of the DNC taking the attacks to a national TV ad had pundits aflutter.
“Will any of Romney’s Republican opponents criticize him as intensely this week as the Democratic National Committee does in its new ad?” asked one Politico hotsheet.
Then a little air came out of the balloon a little. A source told NBC News that the DNC was spending just $14,000 on airtime for its new multi-state ad. That’s enough to get your ad on TV so you can say you have a TV ad (and get the requisite press coverage that goes with it) but it’s not enough for your TV ad to have much impact.
Democrats love pointing out when Republicans do this, but they swear they’re not doing it this time. A DNC official told TPM the NBC figure was “low” but declined to give out the exact totals. Besides, Democrats said, the size of the buy is not the point.
“What we’re spending isn’t at all insignificant given where we are in the race,” DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse told reporters on a conference call today. “It’s a handful of markets for this week only and the ads are an amplification of a broader effort.”
The entire point of the ad’s admittedly “limited buy” Democrats say, is to drive people to their web campaign. And in that sense — thanks in part to the press coverage they received today — the ad is working. The spot’s powerful indictment of Romney as a flip-flopper exposes real weaknesses for Romney, and it’s probably the kind of thing we’re going to see a lot of once the general starts, assuming Romney is the nominee. But it seems that for now this new ad is more about getting people talking than really attacking Romney full-bore.
