To be the next mayor, the old medium is still the message

  

The Jewish Voice

The city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, is kicking off his first television ad campaign this week, marking the beginning of a new, intense, and expensive phase of the race eight weeks out from the June 22 primary that is likely to determine the next mayor of New York.

 The first phase of the most important mayoral campaign in our lifetime did nothing to help the public find a new mayor who can reverse the economic destruction caused by COVERT to the city.   Phase one of the campaign consisted mostly of candidates taking selfies with supporters around the city for twitter and Facebook and zoom calls. The zoom calls often had several candidates speaking to special interest insider groups, were not debates, but talking point discussion written to gain the support of the group hosting the call, written by the candidate’s public relations consultants

 So far, we know the candidates want more money for bike lanes, animal rights and everything else, but they do not explain where the city which is suffering the worse fiscal crisis since the depression, will get the funding.  The voters have no idea which of the candidates will better manage or fix the city’s long-term problems like homelessness or the new ones like 40% of the city’s businesses closed permanently, because they are not discussed beyond the candidate promising to fix all the city’s problems.

   There has been no vetting by debates or by journalists of any of these candidates’ promises or plans.As the TV phase of the campaign now begins more New Yorkers will be exposed to the better funded mayoral candidates as their TVs, Phones and Computers will be bombarded with campaign ads, but those commercials will still be talking points written by campaign consultants.  However if the past is prolog those TV ads, if done right. could be enough to elect the next mayor.

In 1977 the Brilliant TV commercials created by media genius the late David Garth were enough to elect Ed Koch as mayor.   Mario M. Cuomo was running for mayor against Mr. Garth’s come-from-behind creation, Edward I. Koch, Mr. Cuomo sardonically demanded: “What hath Garth wrought?”   

Koch often said he would never have been elected mayor without Garth’s commercials.  He was 10 points behind before Garth started his commercials.

 The late Roger Ailes, former Fox News president and political consultant himself, said “Garth was a political guy who learned how to use television rather than a television guy who learned politics,” Mr. Ailes said. “Nobody knew New York better.   Years after his lost to Koch, Mario Cuomo would recruit Mr. Garth for one of his own campaigns for governor, which he won.   So did Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg who both became mayors of NYC.

Shout out to @UnitedNYBlogs, who wrote this post for the Jewish Voice and ran the essential True News blog, for still tagging me in his tweets even though I'm still unreasonably and unjustifiably deplatformed.

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