The Staff Have Cut an Ad. Here Are My Notes.

The staff have cut a thirty-second ad about inflation. They are proud of it. They screened it for me on a laptop in the war room and watched my face for signs of approval. I gave them nothing. Then I asked them to play it again. Here is what the ad does, shot by shot, and here are my notes, which they said were "very detailed" in the tone of voice people use when they mean something else.

SHOT ONE: A grocery store aisle. A cart. A hand reaching for a loaf of bread and then putting it back. The narrator says: *Prices are up. Benefits lag behind. Americans are making hard choices every single week.*

MY NOTE: Good. True. The bread is the right bread. However, I would have lingered two more seconds on the empty hand, after the bread goes back. The empty hand is the whole argument. The staff say two seconds costs money. I do not understand this and I have asked for a full briefing.

SHOT TWO: A kitchen table. An older pair of hands sorting envelopes into two piles: one smaller, one large. The narrator says: *A 3.7 percent rise in prices. A benefits increase that chases it like a dog chases a car — loud, determined, and always a little behind.*

MY NOTE: I approved this metaphor before the script was final. I want that on record. I also want it on record that I would catch the car. That is a personal note, not a policy note. The staff have asked me to stop adding personal notes. The staff are not in charge of my notes.

SHOT THREE: This is where I made the largest change. The original cut showed a graph. I replaced the graph with a ribeye. Same information, conveyed with much greater authority. Consistent with my position on the Steak-Backed Economy, every monetary figure in this ad now has a steak equivalent in the lower third. A 3.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment is, in real terms, approximately the difference between a good cut and a great one. The viewer understands this. The viewer has always understood this. We gave them a graph for forty years and look at us.

SHOT FOUR: The close. The narrator says: *One candidate understands what's at stake.* Then a pause. Then: *She takes the steak very seriously.*

MY NOTE: I wrote that line. The staff wanted something about "fighting for you" and I said we would not be doing that. We would be specific. People are tired of being fought for in the abstract. They want someone who has sniffed the actual problem and can describe it accurately. The steak is accurate. The steak is always accurate.

The ad runs in three markets starting Thursday. I am told it tests well. I already knew that.