Today i filmed a television commercial for an exterior renovation company, who happened to repair a guys house who is currently running for congress.
This gentleman gave a testimonial where he said his name, and that he was running for congress, this is why you should trust these guys blah blah blah.
My question is…he has never held office, he is only running and the outcome will not be decided for over a month. But the commercial is due next week to run for 6 months.
In the lower thirds of the screen where i would put his name, what should i put for his title? What would be a term i could put in the commercial and keep regardless if he wins or loses the election?
He has no title today, other than “Mister”. He’s a private citizen.
Any title that you might give him today regarding the fact that he’s a candidate for Congress will become irrelevant before the ad goes off the air. Either he’ll become a Congressman-elect (and then a Congressman), or he’ll no longer be a candidate at all.
I don’t think that there’s any title, other than “Mister”, which will survive for the length of the ad campaign. If the advertiser wants to name-drop (and indicate that the guy is a candidate), he’ll have to realize that the ad will need to be edited at least once during its run.
Keep in mind that the next election for Congress will be in November 2014, but your state will have a primary election earlier in the year in which his candidacy may be ended if he doesn’t get his party’s nomination. (There’s also a chance that he could be running to fill a vacant seat in Congress, in which case a special election could be held at any time.)
I don’t believe there is any formal protocol for how to refer to a congressional candidate, but I would suggest off the top of my head:
Mike Jones
Candidate for Congress (DC-1)
(Where DC is your state, and 1 is the district number)
But I would also be extremely reluctant to use his candidacy status in an advertisement due to unknown implications for equal time, alienating potential customers who are of a different political party, people simply not liking politicians, and several other reasons.
I would think that the title given would be chosen by Marketing to maximize the desired effect.
Would an endorsement by “Congressman X” inspire trust? I don’t think so. (Unless all your potential customers trust congress.)
An endorsement by “Congressional Candidate X” doesn’t sound much better.
An endorsement by “failed Congressional Candidate X” might increase the trustworthiness of their endorsement.
Ask the Marketing department, but I think that “Mr.” or “Ms.” would probably be the way to go.
Ah, I missed that. In that case, he doubtless has some claim to fame that he’s building his campaign on… Prominent businessman, maybe? Noted lawyer? There’s sure to be something you can label him with that makes him look significant, and which won’t be outdated by the elections.
You might want to check with whatever TV station you’re planning on running the ad regarding their policies on ads featuring candidates for political office.
They might refuse to run the ad because of equal time rules. On the other hand, they may be obliged not only to run it, but to give you the “lowest unit rate” up until election day.
The station probsably won’t give you the lowest rate, only an ad from his vcampaign committee would get that. (And the stations generally require full payment in advance for those.)
But I’d also consider if you even want to run this at all. Will it help your sales?
Giver the current nasty partisan feelings in the political arena, it could hurt more than help you. For example, if he’s running as a Democrat, the Republican viewers will dislike him, and may associate that dislike with your company/product. And if he’s running against a current Democratic incumbent, many of the Democratic viewers may also dislike him.
The if he takes a controversial position, or gets involved in some scandal (like caught in an airport restroom or emailing nude photos of body parts), people will be disgusted with him. And that disgust may carry over to you. At the least, you would probably have to stop running his ad immediately (thus wasting the expense of producing it) and have to hope that viewers forget about it quickly.
If he is prominently shown as a congressional candidate, then using “running for congress” or “congressional candidate” would be an appropriate “byline” for him. I would go with “running for congress” since I assume he’s not technically a candidate until he’s won a nomination from a party.
The article suggests that putting up an ad in a pay situation like running on a TV channel could have campaign finance repercussions, although Youtube was OK.