Once an improbable frontrunner in the Democratic primary, Anthony D. Weiner has fallen to fourth place in many polls, his campaign engulfed by fresh revelations of online liaisons with women. In his first television ad, “Powerful Voices,†Mr. Weiner speaks directly to the viewer for a full 30 seconds, casting himself as an underdog hounded by the establishment and urging voters to ignore his critics.
Mr. Weiner projects sincerity: he is dressed simply (white shirt, blue tie with black stripes) and speaks directly to the camera, framed from the chest up. He begins with a familiar recitation â€" that he is the candidate focused on ideas â€" but the jaunty music abruptly fades out, and the on-screen images disappear, as he moves into the heart of the commercial.
Without specifically mentioning his recent troubles, Mr. Weiner neatly ascribes â€" and implicitly dismisses â€" any attacks on him to a vaguely shadowy group. The language doubles as an appeal to his longtime base, aggrieved working-class New Yorkers who may have felt excluded from the Bloomberg boom years.
Just as Mr. Weiner seemed to inspire Eliot Spitzer’s redemptive bid for comptroller, Mr. Spitzer’s advertising strategy may be influencing Mr. Weiner. Mr. Spitzer’s most recent commercial announces that the “establishment†is against him and urges the voter (“youâ€) to decide. Mr. Weiner is taking a similar tack, although his argument may lack the potency of Mr. Spitzer’s, whose battles with Wall Street are well known. Mr. Weiner’s commercial runs the risk of sounding hollow to voters who are fully aware of the candidate’s troubles and may have reached their own conclusions about him, regardless of what any “powerful voices†are saying.
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