Did Locke Copy or Steal?
Gene Locke must have gotten the latest memo that shows him behind Annise Parker and Peter Brown even though he has managed to out raise them both and get more endorsements than all of the candidates combined … but he is stuck at the bottom just shy of being humiliated by Roy Morales.
Then, I got word of his latest television advert and I was excited … finally we will get to see some good stuff. If, Locke was going negative on the radio and chipping away at Peter Brown … accusing him of buying votes … I could only imagine the havoc his new ad would bring.
That’s not my spin … it is the Houston Chronicle’s claim that I read in “Locke ad: Brown tried to buy black support” and boy was I excited about Locke’s TV ad … sort of like a little kid on the eve of Christmas who has been waiting for Santa Claus to deliver on the goods.
To my dismay though and like a fat kid in dodge ball … Locke was out! He missed his mark and was not able to deliver with his ad. In fact, I thought it was a carbon copy of the Parker ad theme “Only One” and perhaps he did that on purpose … who knows.
The ad states:
“Only one candidate for mayor has been endorsed by the Houston Chronicle (pause) and Houston’s Police and Firefighters (pause) it’s Gene Locke.”
My qualms with the ad is the deception that occurs through omission … although that omission in this case is only represented via a pause and the use of the conjunction “and” to tie both of the predicates to a subject together.
Bradley Olson of the Houston Chronicle states:
“Locke is the only candidate endorsed by the Houston Chronicle…and police and firefighters, much as I am the only reporter covering the mayoral race…who is at the Houston Chronicle and six feet tall.
The paper co-endorsed Locke and Parker, so while it’s not correct to say Locke is the only candidate who got the nod, he can still claim the statement is true because after the brief pause he includes police and firefighters.”
Greg Wythe adds:
“The opening half of the opening line, regarding Gene being the "only one" endorsed by the Chronicle, evoked laughter. For Team Locke’s sake, they should hope I’m the only one who heard it that way. It’s usually not a good sign for an ad to inspire that kinda reaction.
The ad itself looks good, but it strikes me as the type of ad you’d want to saturate the airwaves with in the first half of October, not as your closing argument with voters.”
One can see that the Locke camp is feeling the heat and they have to go on the offensive the rest of the way if they wish to be duking it out in December. As Pablo Picasso stated, “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal!” … which did Gene Locke do?