Do The Twist: Political Ad Fun

The “Rick Perry Neck Twist” has evidently become the hot “body language” of the race for governor: both Rick Perry and Carole Keeton Strayhorn are doing it in their new commercials which began nauseating viewers statewide today.

As for Perry’s commercial, he’s dressed like he’s about to go tend cattle walking up and down the Mexican border with some guy that looks like he may be a law enforcement officer. And, he’s bragging about sticking national guard troops on the border before President Bush sent them there. The ad also uses the term “illegal activity” rather than specifically saying “illegal immigrants,” evidently for fear that Perry will piss off even more Latino voters. Through most of the ad where we see Perry walking with the law officer, it looks like Perry is either struggling to stay interested in whatever the two are talking about or very confused about what the two are talking about.
Perry’s commercial looks more like he’s running for Congress than running for governor of Texas. And, while I think most people in Texas do care about border security at least to a degree, I find it strange that, in his first (technically, second) ad of the cycle, he’s not said a word about issues that voters will think of at the ballot box: taxes, public education, etc.

As for Carole Strayhorn’s ad, she’s in front of a white background talking about being a Texas independent and fixing our schools. (Yawn.) But, she’s talking about real issues as opposed to wedge issues like Perry is in his ad.  She’s in her trademark black blazer (but sans the scarf this time) and we even see an almost full body shot from above the knees, something I always thought was an advertisint no-no for female candidates (unless you happen to look like Dawana Dukes or Stephanie Herseth). If you watch the ad closely, though, at the beginning, you could become hypnotized by her earrings, which are dangling excessively. Then, later in the ad (right about at the point in the screenshot), her right hand does a wierd twitch, like she was either patting herself in the thigh or having a nervous twitch.

If I had to pick an ad out of these two that I like better, it’s Strayhorn’s. Though I’ve just lampooned it to death, I have to admit if I were running a campaign in her position, it’s probably the kind of ad I would run. It’s simple and almost has a ‘classic’ feel to it, but it, too, lacks in real substance. No plan, no proposal. Just that she’s OTG and she’s gonna fix…something.

Of course, I can’t wait to see a cigar smoking Kinky Friedman in a political ad saying something like, “I’m going to lock the legislature up in a room and make them listen to a negro talkin’ to himself if they don’t do what I tell ‘em to do!”

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