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| Click to view our video for TN Senate candidate David Weatherspoon |
Turnout is always key in this scenario, and getting out in the streets, door-to-door, in the grueling Memphis summer heat seems to be the conventional if painstaking answer.
Besides time and shoe leather, candidates seek to leverage their message through social media, online outlets, and favorable print and TV press when it comes their way.
Like a country song, a candidate needs a hook line -- a way to stand out. With David Weatherspoon, it's pretty obvious: Weatherspoon is the "Chaplain Candidate" who seeks to knock off ALEC darling and health care denier Brian Kelsey in the general election. First, there is a primary to get through.
Weatherspoon's messaging takes this head on and pivots on the chaplain-politician juxtaposition.
A SECOND 'HOOK LINE'
There's a second "hook line" in this video, and it comes from a friend who had encouraged Weatherspoon to run for office. Dr. Carissa Cascio is a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, and we spoke with her on-camera to flesh out Weatherspoon's story.
Nashville-based Derek Moore of Moore Media & Entertainment helped me talk with Carissa -- frankly, we sought to elicit short ways for Carissa to describe her friend the candidate, not explanations that don't quite fit in tight media time and capture limited attention spans. I figure it is necessary to catch someone's interest in the first five to 10 seconds. Derek is more hard-core than that:
"You have four seconds to get them. After that, if they are not interested in your Facebook ad, they will move on."
Carissa was patient as we criss-crossed over different ways to ask the same question; then our "other hook line" popped out:
'THINGS WOULD BE BETTER IF...'
"My friends and I sometimes talk about, Things would be better if. Things would be better if: We had someone in office who had these values. Things would be better if: We had someone who could stand up to special interests..."
This was a perfect set-up to end the spot and segue to the candidate's call to action. Delightfully, this was an unscripted moment -- but we used the authenticity and passion of David's friend to seize on this theme.
The message is unmistakable about the Chaplain-Candidate: "Things would be better if: David Weatherspoon TN Senate 31."
We engaged Ward Archer's Music + Arts Studio to assist with sound engineering in the production of this commercial...and LensRentals for equipment we wanted to enhance the production.
Take two minutes to check out this video -- and see if you come to know this father, husband, chaplain, mediator and first-time candidate a little better -- well enough to determine this is a candidate who can give Brian Kelsey his wish as Kelsey expressed in accepting a recent recognition from ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the body that sets up international special interests to write laws for states, using politicians like Kelsey to carry their water. The recently married Kelsey told ALEC:
"I am looking forward to spending more time at home with my wife."
"Things would be better if..." Kelsey's wish came true, and we had this compassionate chaplain in Nashville.
