Fred Thompson versus Floating Text and Conga Drums

One of the oddest moments of the YouTube CNN debate was when Fred Thompson had his opportunity to air this 30-second spot:

Odd because this was the first and only time a candidate - Republican or Democrat - had used their 30-second opportunity to take a swing at their opponents.

In an interview posted today by John Hawkins at Right Wing News, Fred Thompson's campaign manager, Bill Lacy, discusses their YouTube debate commercial strategy.

Now, tell us a little bit about the decision to go negative with Fred's ad in the debate. That was a bold choice. Why did you decide to do that instead of going with a positive Thompson ad?

First of all, people in the mainstream media would never buy this, but I find bloggers, in this respect, are more subtle sometimes...

Are you getting ready to say that it's not really a negative ad because...

That's exactly what I'm getting ready to say.

(Laughing) That's true.

I'm gonna say that if they said in the past and they said it on tape...it's not negative. We're just literally taking something they've said and they've done (and putting it out there). I just don't personally view that as being negative.

You're right. ...Technically, it's not negative...but, why you decide to go with an ad to push the other candidates down instead of pushing Fred up?

I think the idea was to start to get people to think about, in this case, ...the two governors, their past records, and what they've done, and to understand that one of Fred's big advantages is that he's a consistent conservative, that everybody in the race has been in different positions in the past.

...The other piece of it was that we wanted to try to get some people to go take a look at the two minute version of it on our website, which I think is a very strong piece that I think completes the trilogy by adding mayor Giuliani and a couple of his comments and then finishes with a strong, very positive 30 seconds on Fred. We thought that was more likely to catch people's attention and drive them to the website...

Well, you know it worked. I don't even remember what any of the other ads were at this point. Yours did stick out at least.

It did get some attention.

Looking back on the video, I would argue that it was one of the largest missed opportunities of the campaign. After all, 4.5 million viewers were tuned in and paying attention. This would have been a great time to get the momentum shifting back in Fred's direction.

Let me explain...

The reason this video missed its mark was not because it pulled down unsavory YouTube clips of Fred's opponents -- that is fair game, a smart use of the medium, and was pretty darn clever. It effectively put those opponents on defense with their own words which they had to try and explain. Bravo. Snaps. But the video did not put Fred on offense.

The reason it failed to make any real impact was because Fred had no starring role.

Instead of relying on their best (only?) asset - Fred Thompson - they relied on floating text and conga drums to drive their message that he is the only conservative in the race.

Those words likely poll well, but I was sitting in the audience and I could hardly read what the words said on the 25-foot screen in front of me. 4.5 million viewers tuned in - I doubt I was alone.

Look, if you need a sale, who on that stage is a better salesman than Fred Thompson?

Instead, I would have argued my case to Bill Lacy and the highly-paid media consultant that Fred needed to remind folks why they started liking him in the first place. It wasn't a flashy piece of direct mail or a phone call.

Quite simply, it was this video and a belief that Fred was a different kind of politician:

Yup, I would have asked Fred to sit in that chair again, turn around to the camera with a cigar in hand and say that he was looking up some of his opponents on YouTube to prepare for the debate, and then literally show him watching the unsavory clips on YouTube. After the clips, Fred could have simply cocked his head with a "huh?" expression, told viewers to look at YouTube themselves for his opponents names, and then asked people to go to his website to see why he's the only consistent conservative in the race.

That would have put the ball squarely in Fred's court and would have shined a brighter light on several YouTube clips that millions of Americans have never seen.

The Fred Thompson recipe for YouTube success calls for one-part charisma, one-part Hollywood, two-parts red meat conservative rhetoric, and a dash of comedy relief.

At one point, we believed. Remember?