Anatomy of an Ad: “Speedo”

Introduction

• Humor takes the sting out of…well…the sting. And while political ads were once heralded for taking down opponents with a chainsaw, sometimes humor can be more persuasive. There’s nothing more powerful than getting voters to laugh at your opponent. 
   
  
• This ad titled, “Speedo” was created for the Residents Opposing Aaron Peskin for Mayor 2024.  Mayoral elections in San Francisco are run by a ranked choice system. Internal research showed that it wasn’t enough to get voters to simply vote for someone else, we needed voters to not rank Aaron Peskin anywhere on their list. Hence, the “don’t rank Aaron Peskin” tag at the end. 
  

Section 1: Concept and Message

• Creative Idea
  • We knew from polling that the message that moved voters most against Peskin was information regarding his long tenure at City Hall and the reports of allegations of threatening employees, bullying, and harassing people to get his way. We could have done this as a straight negative hit. However, given the limited budget, we knew we needed to do something that would be more memorable and, well, splashy.
    
    
  • Our idea was to combine the message of bullying with another one of Peskin’s favorite pastimes: swimming to Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay in a Speedo. Peskin himself had just released an ad featuring him swimming in the Bay. It’s worth noting that his own Media Consultants did not, in fact, put him in a Speedo for his own ad. 
    

Section 2: Breaking down the 30 Seconds

• 0-5 seconds:  Hook ‘Em
  • The opening visual was designed to grab the voter’s attention.
    
  • The *snap* of the Speedo was to deliver a quick laugh within 3 seconds.

• 6-10 seconds:  Visually Connecting the Two “Peskins”
  • During this time, we show that “Peskin” is going to go swimming. We have him cannonball into the water at :05 to deliver the next laugh as he starts his swim.
    
  • At :09 we connect the real Peskin through an actual photo of him swimming in the San Francisco Bay. It’s important to establish this real imagery alongside our actor to connect them visually going forward. It’s in this sequence where we also introduce the reports of Peksin’s threats, bullying, and harassment.

• 11-26 seconds: Delivering the Hit
  • At :12 we cut to our drone shot of our actor swimming in a face-to-the-sky “Starfish” stroke as we show the real Peskin’s image on the cell phone.
    
  • At :18 on “Revenge,”  we give a break to the viewer by cutting to an underwater camera. This continues through the list of things that have gotten worse while Peskin has been in power (homelessness, drugs, schools, crime, etc).  
    
  • At :24 we build in a surprise when “Peskin” in Speedo walks through the frame naturally wiping the words off.

• 27-30 seconds: Punchline
  
• We deliver the punchline of  “We’ve seen enough”  along with presenting Peskin in all his glory from a photo where he posed in his Speedo. We saved this photo, and laugh, for the end.  We put Peskin in a giant gold frame as the photo itself is hilarious and a work of art. The gold frame idea stemmed from decades earlier when our advertising mentor Joe Slade White would use a frame like this in negative ads. 

---

Watch Full Ad

Script:

There are things in life that make us uncomfortable… **snap**  like Aaron Peskin. 

Peskin has spent decades in office threatening, bullying, and harassing people to get his way. 

Late night calls to threaten city employees. 

Berating firefighters as they battled a fire. 

Seeking revenge on city employees. 

And while Peskin’s been in power, homelessness, drugs, downtown, housing, schools, and crime have only gotten worse. 

So don’t rank Aaron Peskin… 
we’ve seen enough.