James Hinson Blog #8: Anatomy of a Viral Political Ad

This month, in October 2016, an a political ad dropped on YouTube, and presumably our local TV.  This ad was for the re-election of Republican Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty.  The ad quickly went viral, and spawned many news stories.

The primary reason the video went viral was because of its humor content, and that it took a somewhat negative view of the candidate.  Other humor is generated in the structure of the ad being so different from traditional political ads in this cycle.  Most ads are negative on the competing candidate, rather than the candidate behind the ad.  This ad highlights a weakness and turns it into a strength: the candidate is seen here as an insufferable policy wonk, annoying and boring his wife.  For the wife, this is bad, but for the constituents, this is viewed as a positive, that he cares so much about policy.  It is especially noteworthy because so much of this election cycle has been entirely devoid of policy.  The entire ad comes off as very believable, humanizing, and reinforcing of the candidates credibility.

All of this is in stark contrast to the sorts of ads which went viral in previous cycles, such as Carly Fiorina’s Demon Sheep ad.  More often than not, the ad goes viral for reasons that do not promote the candidate.  Sometimes the ad just so entirely misses the mark, or it finds an unintended audience that finds the ad unintentionally hilarious.

While the ad in question here does have some vaguely problematic gender role overtones, it serves as a reminder that intentional humor and policy do still have a place in modern politics.

The video in question:

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2016/10/26/travis-county-commissioner-gerald-daugherty-teaches-us-how-to-do-political-advertising/#4d5b0853048a

http://motto.time.com/4546787/gerald-daugherty-viral-election-ad/