The Reverse Negative Ad
Here we have an example of the down side to a distributed campaign. Some bozo supposedly supporting Rudy Giuliani made this YouTube video ripping on Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. This guy is driving around in his car insulting Mormons and claiming Thompson is gay while his wife is a transsexual. At the end is Rudy’s web address JoinRudy2008.com.
I call it the “Reverse Negative Ad.” On the surface it’s a negative ad bashing a candidate’s opponents, but the effect (intentional or not) is to make the candidate look bad. This video doesn’t help Giuliani win over voters who are leaning towards Romney or Fred Thompson.
Who knows if this guy really is a Rudy backer or is anti-Rudy and made the video to embarrass him.
What does Team Rudy do? Do they put out a statement distancing themselves from the video giving it more attention? Doing that only encourages Rudy’s opponents to make more embarrassing videos wasting campaign staffers’ time.
Do they ignore it hoping it gets lost in the mountains of video junk dumped daily on YouTube?
With the vast amount of video that will be produced and watched viewers will become more adept at questioning the source of videos and their maker’s motives. It’s happening with weblogs. People are getting wiser about what weblogs are serious places of commentary and what are hack, cheerleading sites. Until then all the campaigns have to prepare for more damage control more often.
[via The Corner]
Personally, I found the thing disgusting. And as you said, less likely to jump on with “Team Rudy” if I have to share a piece of the bandwagon with a clown like this.
If anything, I think it could be possible for the Giuliani campaign to get in touch with this idiot and tell him to end his fun. The exposure isn’t helping what is suppose to be their campaign’s theme of “best general election option to win the election.”
Also, given the bad press they got with the Romney-Mormon whisper campaign news last month, pretty sure they don’t want this headache.