Politics

New American Crossroads ad pulls at the heart ‘threads’

Jeff Winkler Contributor
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The economy is squished and pretty little girls could be next.

At least that’s the visual image from the new American Crossroads, the third spot from the conservative super PAC in less than two weeks.

The 30-second ad, “Thread,” features symbolic cargo containers — “Tax Increases,” “High Unemployment,” “Reckless Government Spending” — being loaded onto a platform suspended above a crowd. But as the containers stack up, the narrator warns that “we are near the breaking point. Maybe we won’t be crushed when our economy snaps … but someone will.”

The crowd parts as the cable holding up the platform begins to snap, except for that “someone”: a cute little girl with big, piercing  blue eyes that cut through the rest of the ad’s rustic, cloudy color palate.

With a $3.5 million price tag, “Thread” is one of American Crossroads’ most ambitious TV ads yet, and all part of the conservative group’s $20 million ad blitz, which launched in June. The ad itself will run for two weeks and will be featured on national cable channels and local TV.

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If the DNC’s immediate morning response is any indication, the spot is an effective piece of political messaging. As noted by others, the spot shares qualities with Lyndon B. Johnson’s short but powerful “Daisy” ad, which featured a little girl picking at a flower before … anyway, it became a classic in political advertising.

The super PAC, a political group able to raise unlimited amount of campaign cash, has been relentless in its criticism of the Democrats’ economic policies. Yesterday American Crossroads launched a $1.5 million advertising campaign individually targeting five senators and the previous week launched a similar campaign against 10 House Democrats.

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