AdWatch: Promoting Progressive Kenney, not Fumo's Kenney

Type of Ad: Positive

Candidate: Jim Kenney

By: Kenney for Mayor

Title: "Hard Choices"

The Basics:  Jim Kenney speaks! For the first time in the campaign, the candidate faces the camera and talks about where he stands.  The difference between this ad and the others is that this TV ad was paid for by the campaign itself; the others were aired by SuperPACS.  They got to use head shots of the candidate. Now, he can speak for himself. And he does a good job. The ad was done by Snyder Pickerill, a Chicago-based media firm headed by Ken Snyder, who also serves as a Kenney campaign consultant. In his previous life, Snyder worked as media contact guy for candidate John Street and, for one brief moment, as Mayor Street's press secretary. Later, he worked on Anthony Hardy Williams's campaign for governor. The firm also did media for Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, which you can see here.

Crit: The SuperPAC ads for Kenney stressed his pro-labor ties, which isn't a surprise given that the principal funders of these ads are labor unions. This one offers us "Jim Kenney the Progressive" and stresses his support of LGBT rights, lowering penalties for marijuana use, ethics legislation, and his promise of pre-K for all. It does it with the usual professional touch media firms bring to campaigns. It tries to give a one-on-one feel to the candidate's presentation -- Kenney begins by talking directly into the camera -- and he does a good job. It ends by him saying he's ready to make the hard choices a mayor must make because he's made them all along.

What isn't said:  This ad is all about the New Jim Kenney, who established his liberal bona fides during the later part of his City Council career, not the Old Jim Kenney, the South Philly guy who was a protégé of Vince Fumo. But, let us not dwell on the past...

Is the ad factual?  Yes

Overall grade: on a Pass/Fail scale this is a PASS.  Well executed and makes good use of the candidate.