Scott Powers
As promised last week when his campaign first unveiled the spot as an internet digital ad, Andrew Gillum is launching his “Chance” commercial — citing progressive causes from gun control to abolishing and replacing ICE, ending “Stand Your Ground” to impeaching Donald Trump — on television.
The TV buy will be limited, as is Gillum’s campaign fund, with an initial five-figure purchase to place the commercial on TV in West Palm Beach, Orlando, and Tampa starting Wednesday.
The campaign seeks to tie in with the Tallahassee Mayor’s rallies set for Friday in Tampa and Orlando with progressive Democratic lion U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“As we get into the home stretch of this primary, our campaign’s positive energy and enthusiasm — while others are mired in the muck — is on full display with this ad touting Mayor Gillum’s bold, progressive vision for Florida,” Gillum’s campaign said in a news release.
Earlier his campaign touted the internet ad as “the most progressive ad in Florida history.”
Gillum is running third in the latest poll of the five Democrats running in the Aug. 28 gubernatorial primary, well behind front-runners Philip Levine and Gwen Graham, but ahead of Jeff Greene and Chris King.
The actual video and voice-over by Gillum are a lot less stark than the commercial’s overall effect. With shots of Gillum confidently striding a corridor, sitting lovingly with his family, smiling as he meets people, and speaking at rallies, Gillum offers inspirational, but not inflammatory words:
“My mother said the only thing in life you should ever ask for is a chance. So I want you to know that if you give me the chance to not only be your nominee but to be the next governor of the great state of Florida, that I’m going to make you proud every single day of the week. So I want y’all to join me on this mission, all right? And together we are going to take this state back, flip Florida blue in 2018, and flip this country blue in 2020.”
But while that’s playing out, and his voice rises toward an urgent tone, background music gets more dramatic, and a series of text screens pop in and out with increasing speed until they look like the backs of playing cards in a deck being shuffled, many of the messages being repeated:
BEAT THE NRA. HEALTHCARE FOR ALL. $1 BILLION MORE FOR EDUCATION. BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS. $15 MINIMUM WAGE. RESTORE RIGHTS. ABOLISH & REPLACE ICE. END STAND YOUR GROUND. CLEAN UP OUR WATER. LEGALIZE MARIJUANA. IMPEACH TRUMP.
