I wasn’t too psyched about the first TV ad released by Chris Gabrieli’s campaign – to me, it seemed uninspired and uninspiring.
The second one, which I can’t figure out how to access from his front page but which you can watch here (Quicktime video), is much better. It plays up one of Gabrieli’s best credentials – his work on after-school programs – and, as Adam Reilly notes, it has some nifty shots of kids looking like they like school, as well as close-ups of Gabrieli looking like a go-to kind of guy.
But here is the HUGE problem with the ad: I played it four times with the volume turned all the way up, and I still can’t understand everything Gabrieli is saying. Yes, I get most of his words, but I can’t get all of them. There are a couple of points in the ad where he starts talking really fast, and his words run together, and it comes out like mush. I noticed his tendency to talk overly fast when we spoke with him a couple of weeks ago, but that was a conversation. This is a TV ad, for heaven’s sake – if he doesn’t get it right on the first take, you can redo it. Why would anyone allow that to stay in the final version?
Gabrieli is spending a lot of money for every single word in those campaign ads. You’d think he’d want each of those words to be understood.
You guys are obviously more sophisticated than I when it comes to evaluating this medium, but when I watched these ads I came away empty. Who is this guy? What does he stand for?
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He has to convince 15% of the delegates to the statewide convention that he has what it takes. Will these ads help? Not around here. So far as I know, he has less than 1% of our delegation. I’m pretty sure TV ads in the eastern part of the state is going to have little or no effect on that…
I’d be more concerned with Gabrieli’s substance, not his ad buys. There’s an article which says that Epix, a drug company he chairs, announced the layoff of 48 of its 93 employees two weeks before Christmas. Ouch. Still, that’s not a huge number compared to the amount of jobs he’s “created” as a businessman. Even so, I think he has yet to articulate exactly how he will create jobs, other than the fact that he’s into business.
was his forte but I am concerned he is flip floping on this issue. He was a huge advocate for afterschool programs but now wants to extend the school day. You can’t do both, and increasing one over the other will leave one group shortchanged. In Massachusetts after school gouprs have been investing a lot of time and money into expanding and improving. If Gabrielli flips on them now it will not be pretty.
Extending the school day is the same as advocating mandatory after-school programs. I see no inconsistancy here, in Gabrieli’s defense.
extending the school day does two things, it makes it a longer day for teachers and it is administered by the public schools. After school programs for the most part are staffed by non teachers and are delivered by a mixed system. Many afterschool programs include care and activities on holidays, staff development days and vacations. Extended school days would not include any of these, what are the parents to do on days there is no school? CG will have to decide to fund the extended school day or the afterschool program.
If the afterschool programs are not fully funded they go bye bye, no more picking your children up at 6:00, unless the teachers are working that late.
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Do you get the pic?
but I only caught one bit of mush mouth, and I’m pretty sure it was just slurring — that is, no information was lost, just an extra slurred sylable.
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Of course, this was the second time I heard the ad in a row, but I intentionally didn’t have the video up so I couldn’t focus on reading his lips.
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I tend to agree with the posters above. To me, the message is: I have at least one or two teacher fanboys(girls). They say I helped them doing something or other that wasn’t state wide, didn’t necessarily involve funding or mandates of any kind, and was pretty neato. To which I reply: well done for a regular citizen, but big whoop for a guy running for state office.
Too many talking heads for my take, especially in his first one. Reminds me of what my English teacher used to say: “Don’t tell me — show me!”
And I don’t have the same gripe about the sound quality, although there is one section that required multiple listens to understand what was being said.
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My biggest stylistic gripe is that Gabs has to get rid of the typeface — it looks too much like an afterthought on a PowerPoint presentation and comes across as totally amateurish in what seems to otherwise be a very well-produced spot. (For the record, this jumped out at me in the first ad, too.)
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Chris: There are some great typefaces out there. In fact, you use several on your website. Two words: brand consistency.
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Substance-wise I appreciate Gabrieli’s message, but extending the school day and/or adding more after-school programs are going to cost money. I want to know how he reconciles this with the tax rollback to 5%.
That’s my point. He’s running this ad on TV, remember. It’s fine to have an internet be less than perfect, but every time you run a TV ad it’s lots of $$$ out of your campaign account. No one – even Chris Gabrieli – can afford to run TV ads that require multiple listens to be understood.
“It’s fine to have an internet AD be less than perfect …”
Chris Gabrieli seems to be very lacking for a third-time candidate. The other candidates have made strong impressions: Tom Reilly is completely off on the issues and seems extremely inept at administering his campaign, while Deval Patrick great leadership skills and a combination of strength and humility on the issues. Gabrieli comes off as OK, supporting good ideas but not seeming to know much about them, or much about why he’s trying to be governor. The ad shows what he’s achieved on education issues, which is very good to see, but doesn’t show any general sense of leadership or vision.