Adwatch: Williams ad is first negative of campaign, directed at Kenney

Type of Ad: Negative

Candidate: Tony Williams

By: Williams for Mayor

Title: "Words"

The Basics: The first negative ad of the campaign, but surely not the last. The Tony Williams campaign offers us "Words" and it's a knife pointed at Jim Kenney, the man to beat in the Democratic primary for mayor. On the surface, the commercial is simple: it takes words then-Councilman Kenney used in 1997 criticizing curtailment of police powers. They can't use flashlights, Kenney laments. They can't use clubs to the head; they can't shoot anyone. What's next? Give them feather dusters? A nice turn of phrase which, to his regret, is part of the public record. But, it's not the words that give power to this ad, it's the images that accompany them — portrait-like pictures of a black woman, a black barber, a Latino male, a Latino woman, a young black girl and, finally, a white boy. A parade of innocents. "Words matter," the male announcer says....(pause). "So does every community in Philadelphia." The ad is in black and white until the end when there is a burst of color and the image of Tony Williams appears. From the darkness into the light. (It also gives Williams a chance to tout his sorta, kinda endorsement by The Inquirer, which now appears below the Williams for Mayor logo.)

Crit: In the context of the current state of police-community relations (lousy) this ad delivers the simple message: Jim Kenney is not a friend of the minority community, but of its oppressors, the cops. It offers an emotional wallop to achieve a strategic imperative for the Williams campaign: it must, must, must stop Kenney from getting a decent share of the black vote. And right now he has it. Kenney's his response is: That was then and this is now. He says he is embarrassed by the remarks he made 18 years ago and that he has grown as a person. "It doesn't represent me. It doesn't represent my thinking or my work." In short, that was the old blue-collar neighborhood kid Jim Kenney who said that stuff, not the new progressive, anti-stop-and-frisk Jim Kenney.

What isn't said: There are two things to say about negative advertising: it is usually vile and it usually works. This ad does not represent a healing moment in the campaign. The juxtaposition of words and images are intended to divide. It's Us vs. Them and the Them is personified by Kenney, the dour white guy whose face fills the screen at the beginning of the ad. Of course, what it doesn't say is that he has changed since then. But, the intent of political advertising is never to give both sides of a story.

Is the ad factual: Yes.

Grade: On our Pass/Fail scale, it gets a PASS for its presentation/effectiveness, but it's still an ugly dog.