2012 Ad War: Santorum Fights Mud With Humor

This is part of our guest series from Inkwell Strategies analyzing the 2012 campaign ad war.

Rick Santorum’s new ad is a breath of fresh air in an already drawn out primary season.

In
a nominating contest filled to the brim with negative advertising,
Santorum’s “Rombo” ad is an unexpected sojourn into the comedic. The
video features a Romney look-alike firing mud from a machine gun at a
cardboard cut-out of a smiling Santorum in a welcome respite from the
usual political season fair.

Santorum’s move is clever.  As the primary season drags on, voter
fatigue may be setting in, which gives the former Pennsylvania Senator
an opening to break through with a non-traditional sales pitch.  And as
any fourth grader will tell you, the best way to combat a schoolyard
bully is with humor.

Hitting Romney hard for his perceived “mud-slinging,” the ad begins with
a grimacing Romney stand-in entering a warehouse, gun in hand. In the
background, the 1812 Overture plays as a deep-voiced, Hollywood movie
trailer-esque narrator begins: “Mitt Romney’s negative attack machine is
back on full throttle.”

The Romney lookalike then makes his way through an empty building,
firing upon the cardboard cut-out. The ad goes on to accuse Romney of
spending millions “brutally attacking fellow Republicans.” As he finally
gets the Santorum replica in his crosshairs, his mud-gun jams.
Frustrated, he pounds on the barrel and mud splatters onto his shirt.
“In the end,” the narrator intones, “Mitt Romney’s ugly attacks are
going to backfire.”

Still, the ad isn’t a home run.  Santorum makes a curious choice by
portraying himself as a cardboard-cutout. Depicting the candidate as a
rigid, smiling facsimile begs to be lampooned.  And Santorum is betting
that Republican voters already know enough about him to produce an ad
without a positive message.  With limited resources, that’s a risk.

Time will tell whether Santorum’s comedic pitch, like Mitt Romney’s mud-gun, will backfire.