From the Portland Oregonian, [Eugene, Oregon] Register-Guard

“BEER WITH STEVE”

Opening voiceover: “U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick fought corporate polluters and defeated Bill Sizemore. But would you want to have a beer with him?”

The visual: Oregon primary candidate Novick is talking politics at a bar while the man on the next stool struggles to open a beer bottle.

The action: Novick uses his left hook to wrench the top off, then returns to his political message.

Closing voiceover: “Steve Novick — he’s always found a way to get things done.”

_______

“Beer with Steve” is part of a broader advertising strategy to weave a serious message of progressive change with humor about Novick’s unconventional physical appearance. The candidate is 4-foot-9 and was born without the lower part of his left arm and the leg bones between his knees and his feet, the result of a drug prescribed to his mother during pregnancy.

The candidate says the decision to go with a “politics as unusual” theme is a natural, since he’s spent his life using humor to put people at ease. So far, the strategy seems to be winning lots of attention for the previously little-known Novick.

The ad has been viewed more than 70,000 times on Youtube, and won him a fawning interview on the Fox network.

When asked whether having a hook for a hand got him out of having to hold babies on the campaign trail, Novick replied that babies like to use his hook as a teething ring. He also made the point that “it’s perfectly reasonable for a progressive to have a hard left hook.”

Pundits at the Washington Post now describe Novick’s primary campaign against House Speaker Jeff Merkley as “serious.”

Novick’s ad campaign is the creation of Milwaukee firm Eichenbaum & Associates, whose quirky ads helped Sen. Russ Feingold capture a Wisconsin Senate seat. “They’re one of the few firms in the country,” Novick told the Register-Guard, “that has direct experience electing short, Jewish underdogs to the U.S. Senate.”

See earlier post here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 10:34 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, advertising, humor, limb loss, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post