Mike Teevee: Johanns on the air (and a new Kleeb)

Mike Johanns will begin airing campaign ads today statewide.

**UPDATE 2:45pm**
Scott Kleeb also has a new ad up. See it with our commentary below.

His first ad, entitled "Proven. Tested. Trusted." is below. Take a look:



Our initial reaction is that this ad is...OK.
It generally gives a nice wrap-up of Johanns's career, re-introducing him to Nebraska.

But...

The initial problem seems to be the visuals.

First his wife Stephanie is centered on the ad. That's fine to include her, but we're not sure it should have been on the initial shot. And Mike should probably have been in the middle. We're immediately thinking, "Who is this an ad for?"

Problem is, that sort of continues.

We're presented with that western rancher theme that Scott Kleeb has glommed onto. The first shots we see are of some cowboy-hatted galute walking around with his baseball-hatted nine year old son. Wait, is that Mike? Did he get taller? What's with the hat? And who's that kid? The faces are all shadowed, so it's sort of unknown.

The shots of the Galute and his Boy continue, as we're waiting and waiting to see Mike's face.
Then a big close-up of Boy under the "Nebraska Values" logo.

Is the Boy running for something we don't know about? Is that Max Yashirin?

Finally we get a shot of Mike in the cathedral-like barn, with the light streaming in, talking to the Galute and his brother.

Nice visual and all, but again, it's all silhouetted. What do we gotta do to see his face? It's like waiting to see the Joker's face in the "Dark Knight" trailer. Was Mike's face horribly disfigured in some tragic cow-milking accident? Can we see him?

FINALLY, 27 seconds into this 30 second spot, we get a close-up of Johanns.
But then they back-off showing him walking with the Galute brothers, again silhouetted.

So in the end is this all too...artsy? If you replaced Johanns's name with Scott Kleeb's (and changed "tested and ready" with "hope and change" ) would you be that surprised? Is this the Mike Johanns that we know?

We have a feeling that once we start hearing Johanns himself in the ads things will improve.

Until then, we guess we'll just enjoy the cowboy campaign for a while.

***

Here is Scott Kleeb's new ad, entitled, you guessed it, "Nebraska Values".



In this, you hear Kleeb blather on telling YOU what "Nebraska Values" are (because you, who have lived in Nebraska your whole life, don't really understand what they are, apparently).

What the real point of the ad is, beyond visuals of the Kleeb gym pep rally, are the subliminal messages you see flashed on the screen in rapid fire. (Don't blink!)

They are:

"The Kleeb Plan"

"Cut Taxes for Working Families"
(gee, that sounds like a good idea Scott! Wow!)

"Bring Our Troops Home"
(Hmm. But Scott, didn't you say that you wouldn't provide any kind of a timeline? So, when exactly?)

"Health Care Nebraskans Can Afford"
(Wait, how does that jibe with #1 above, again?)

"New Jobs From Homegrown Energy"
(The stuff that everyone is saying is now starving the world?)

"Reduce the National Debt"
(...wait, we're still looking at #1...)

So here's the problem with the ad. Is it about "Nebraska Values" or is it about "The Kleeb Plan" (which we challenge you to find ANY details on...)?

Because each messages cancels out the other, as far as trying to get the voter to soak it in.

But you're not really supposed to worry about either. There's a pretty good chance his next ad is just going to say, "Hope! Change! Kleeb!" and show him riding a longhorn steer. And then the Dems will bat their eyes and note how pretty he is.

What say you folks?