Dueling Commercials
“It’s really kind of simple.” Charles was explaining his stance on economics. “Now you can study Economics from high school all the way to the PhD level. But the plain truth is this - when people have more money, they are going to spend more money.” He was making economics a key issue of his campaign. “So now the question is, what can government do, to help you take home more money in your paycheck?” With that he directed the audience and they simultaneously shouted: “Lower Taxes!” Charles smiled broadly and ended the commercial with a “Yes!”
He had embraced what is called the ‘Fair Tax’. This involves changing the present system of taxation to that of a national sales tax. A major university and some economic professors had spent about 20 million dollars testing this idea and calculated that present governmental revenues would be maintained with a tax of 15 - 20% levied on new products. Not only that, but since this was to be a consumer tax, it would encourage people to save money. There were a couple of caveats with this system, like how the poor would fare, but provisions would be in place to help them, in the form of monthly reimbursement for the taxes they had spent the month before. The most exciting part of this new arrangement would be a massive power shift from government to the individual. And, to top it off, once the changes were in place and the economy responded, the government would wind up with more money than before.
It was so simple and straightforward that the powers that be in Washington, and even his own party couldn’t get their heads around it. But the people did. The ad received almost 100 percent favorable reactions by the public. The other party wasn’t going to let this go without an answer. So they put forth a commercial saying that Charles wanted to increase taxes by 20%.
A few days later a new ad appeared. Charles was again in the middle of a crowd, answering questions. He responded to a question about the ad thusly. “They say that I want to increase taxes by some 20%. Really? I guess they can’t even understand the word, ‘replace’. I want to replace the present system with the Fair Tax, not add! You guys are paying enough in taxes already. You know, there are laws in place for truth in advertising. Apparently they don’t apply to politics.”
That ad, like most of his other ones, received a firestorm of criticism from the other side. It did demonstrate the effectiveness of Charles’ commercials. He fired the other firm partly because they wanted to go primarily with negative ads; Partly because they didn’t want to say anything of substance. The present agency used multiple cameras to record his every statement before a crowd. Often a long speech on a major topic could be parsed down to a few key tag lines. These would be edited into a commercial and in a day or two be national. It allowed Charles to quickly and precisely answer the opposition and speak to the issues at hand. Of course, there were lots of negative ads flying around, but that was because of various interest groups. Charles had no control over them, the law allowed just about anybody with money and an opinion to buy media time and say it. Whenever asked, he firmly distinguished his ads from all others.
One unlikely group supported Charles. The press. Why was a mystery. Especially since they were known to favor the present administration. Perhaps it was because he was the underdog, or a breath of fresh air in terms of candor. Charles never used a teleprompter, often had only a few notes in hand, and made no demands. He actually enjoyed the give and take from reporters, it was a challenge he relished.
In order to really make the economics work properly Charles’ team had worked out a two pronged strategy. Lowering, or changing tax law would be good, but only a start. The second part would be perhaps more difficult. It entailed reducing the size and scope of government. This would not be an easy task since both parties wind up making a lot of money by making promises to constituents. Unofficially it’s called ‘buying votes’. Under the guise of helping people.
Fortunately for Charles the way he had set up his campaign from the beginning allowed him access to a lot of different people. Former ambassadors for example, public servants, both active and retired stepped up to help him. They understood the gravity of this election. His staff made sure their thoughts and wisdom on handling government bureaucracy got through. Charles even held a number of ‘off book’ meetings with the most skilled of them. Meaning these were done without the knowledge of his own party.
He had found that when people voluntarily came together to accomplish a task, good things happened. Above all, in his public statements and in his ads, he wanted to tell the truth about what was going on. But in a way that empowered the electorate. It would be very easy for them to sound like conspiracy theorists and simply be dismissed as a bunch of nut-jobs.
How did the opposing party feel about Charles’ campaign? At the very highest levels and in public they simply laughed him off. It was absurd, to them anyway, that a businessman with no political experience should be able to beat a sitting Executive. He wasn’t even a billionaire! They, at this juncture wouldn’t agree to a debate between the two. In the lower levels of the party things weren’t so rosy. These were the ones who kept their fingers on the pulse of America. As the weeks ran on their smug smiles started to turn to frowns. Maybe they should be taking this a little more seriously. Charles’ message was taking hold.
He was rising in the polls.
