Political Ads Need to Get More Creative

As the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity winds down I thought I'd bring attention to political advertising and marketing, an arena where creativity is sorely lacking and tends to be left in the technocratic hands of political operatives rather than experienced marketers and advertising creatives.

During the last few weeks we've seen some of the most expensive congressional elections in US history and, for the most part, we've also seen the same ol' same ol' when it comes to the creative, or lack thereof, of political advertising. One exception is the Democratic candidate Archie Parnell's self-effacing and compellingly different advertising campaign for the 5th Congressional District in South Carolina. Of the four democratic challengers in deeply red states during this recent spate of special elections, Parnell came the closest to winning, losing by a mere 3 points in a district where the Republicans have traditionally won by double digits. In this heavily gerrymandered red district, this was a hotly contested race. It wasn't supposed to be.

The irony is that despite the record amount of spending in the special elections in states like Georgia and Montana, Parnell spent only about $500,000. So what was different about his campaign that made him more competitive? I'm not going to bore you with all of the political reasons. That's not the point of this post. I want to highlight how the Parnell campaign used humorous, self-effacing storytelling to showcase the candidate's personality, values and ideas in ways that may not be so surprising to the Cannes crowd but challenges the orthodoxy of political candidate advertising.

In an era of 24-7 reality TV, daring scripted content from HBO, Netflix and Amazon, conventional political advertising cuts through only because of the amount of money, space and time it commands during a concentrated period. You could essentially plug one candidate in for another in the same ad and, most of the time, it wouldn't matter what party they represented. Conventional candidate advertising almost seems reject our creative culture.

But rather than reject it, Parnell's campaign actually riffs off of memes in entertainment, check out the House of Cards spot, to build an engaging story around the DNA if the candidate's personality and character. (Spoiler alert: He's no Frank Underwood). These engaging ads use targeted messaging and social media to expand his relevance to voters who may not necessarily connect to him through party affinity or party efforts.

Hey, I'm no political analyst, and I don't know who created these ads. What I do know is in the standardized, sanitized and conventional world of political advertising and marketing, it is refreshing to see some creative storytelling from political candidates that isn't just the use of "alternative facts."

I am Lauren Tucker and I approve this advertising. I'd love to hear from other folks about the role of creativity in political advertising.