Yesterday, InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery took exception to Jack Kingston’s ads playing everywhere you turn on television, writing,
Jack Kingston’s ad campaign is the worst I have seen in decades. It assumes that Georgia Republicans love twangy talking, cheap, crummy car driving leaders. They don’t. And with every ad my friend runs, his numbers in metro-Atlanta go down.
I occasionally go to an informal car enthusiasts club that meets at a local donut shop, and one of our members owns a Buick Roadmaster of approximately the same vintage as Kingston’s – in perfect condition with a tick over 100,000 miles on the clock. And under the hood lives a V8 – the 350 cubic inch LT1 that is cousins with the engine in the Corvette of that era. Combined with the Vista roof on top, woodgrain sides, and brand name, “Buick,” the mid-90s Roadmaster could be quite the sleeper.
Maybe Kingston’s got a V8 under the hood of his old battered Roadie.
I was talking with a friend who is in professional politics the other day, and he was complaining about Kingston’s ads. “Suburban soccer moms drive new SUVs, not 20-year old beaters,” he said, suggesting a disconnect between Kingston’s ads and one of his likely targets.
I chimed in that the frugality on display in the Congressman’s “Tupperware“ ad reminds me more of my grandmother, who lived through the Depression and might have Kingston beat in thriftiness. Grandmother routinely “recycles” paper towels that were used to mop up clean water from countertops by hanging them to dry over the sink. She takes her own similarly recycled “to go” containers with her when someone treats her to a restaurant.
And then it clicked. Maybe soccer moms aren’t the target of the ad. After all, who remembers when Buick Roadmaster was synonymous with American luxury in the same way as Cadillac but our seniors. In a Republican Primary, especially in a year with earlier elections than any other, seniors are our most reliable voters.
Sasha Issenberg, who writes extensively about modern campaign techniques and demographics, noted in New Republic,
Since Obama’s first appearance on a presidential ballot, the population of Americans over the age of 55 has increased by nearly 13 million. By 2022, it will have increased by another nine million. People tend to grow more conservative as they age, but as a cohort, Generation X—whose oldest members will soon reach their fifties—is appreciably more conservative than the Millennials who follow them.
Early primary elections might amplify the voting strength of senior citizens if younger suburbanites are either unaware of the election or too busy to vote. I think I can detect signs of depressed turnout for this year’s intramural contests, and will write more about that later this week.
In a political environment where increasing anxiety about the future, especially concerning healthcare, is understandable for seniors, perhaps the value of thrift will see a resurgence in the most-reliable voting bloc – not “soccer moms,” but what I call the “Get off my lawn” cohort. And Kingston’s frugailty and Buick Roadmaster might signify reliability and trustworthiness among these voters
The idea that Kingston would have a “bad” commercial doesn’t add up with what I know about the media team working with Kingston. I’ve known Kingston’s media consultant, Rex Elsass of The Strategy Group for Media since about 1998 or 1999, and his work has always been excellent quality and inventive, and has propelled the Ohio-based firm to the top tier of national media consultants within the GOP. “Uninspired” is a word you never hear used to describe their work.
It’s possible that Kingston’s ad connects with seniors in a way that doesn’t make sense to those of us — myself and Matt Towery still included — who are not yet called seniors. Kingston’s future probably never was in being the flavor of the week, even in a deeply conservative Georgia Republican elecorate. Maybe being the safe, reliable choice is a bigger gamble, but it might work this year.
Finally, there’s the fact that two politicos taking place in our most honored professional activity — gossiping about politics — were talking about Kingston’s ad, even to say we’re baffled by the strategic double-down on cheap, the fact that we were talking about Jack’s ads shows that they have an earworm quality about them. Go to any Georgia GOP event this weekend, and if you don’t see Jack’s vintage wagon being driven by the candidate himself, you’re more likely to hear people talking about his ads than any other candidate.
