Jimmy Siegel

Ad man Jimmy Siegel, who worked for both Spitzer and Clinton, is out with a new television ad for Democratic State Senate candidate Rick Dollinger, who is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Joe Robach.

Lots of close-ups and soaring music. 

A poll last week showed Robach leading Dollinger 49-38 in the heavily Democratic district, which might have something to do with the appearance of the ad, as well as yesterday's endorsement from David Paterson, who calls Dollinger a "friend."

Paterson, who has tried to stay away from taking sides in the State Senate elections, will also attend a fund-raiser for Dollinger.

David Paterson is facing a $1.5 million ad campaign funded by groups opposed to his plan to cap property taxes. And ad man Jimmy Siegel knows how it feels.

Siegel made ads for Eliot Spitzer last year when the governor was trying to reduce health care spending.

When I played the ad for him, he said, “I got such déjà vu. I remember the first ad 1199 ran was exactly like that. It got worse, but they started with, basically, ‘Hey, everybody knows we got to do something to bring down Medicaid costs, but Eliot Spitzer’s plan is the wrong one. So, call and tell Eliot it’s the wrong one.  read more »

Yesterday’s endorsement rally for Hillary Clinton on the steps of the capitol was idyllic: sunny weather, a cool breeze, happy schoolchildren cheering along.

It was, quite literally, picture perfect. Hanging from the metal barricades around the event were signs warning that the event was being filmed for a commercial purposes.

Over to you, Jimmy Siegel!

The health care unions opposing Eliot Spitzer's health care spending cuts have come up with four new Let It Be On Your Head ads featuring frail health care patients talking right to the camera and dropping the governor's name.

A frail, grandmotherly woman named Anna Rose says in one ad, "Governor Spitzer, I want you to look at me. And when you cut health care, I want my face to be in front of you. Remember me."

UPDATE: A senior Spitzer source familiar with the governor's health care campaign had this to say about the new 1199 ad: "It's as if Tim Burton and Jimmy Siegel collaborated on a spot."

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's the new Craig Johnson ad, which moves away from the slick, soft-music pieces we got used to seeing from adman Jimmy Siegel during the governor's race.  read more »

The script is after the jump.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here is an ad for Democratic state senate candidate Brooke Ellison of Long Island. Note the kicker: "Brooke Ellison kicked butt in Harvard. Imagine what she'll do to Albany."

The ad, which began airing recently, was created by Jimmy Siegel, he of Eliot Spitzer fame.

The tagline in this ad is pushing the envelope of folksiness, but it sure beats this.

-- Azi Paybarah

Eliot's first television spots doesn't actually include cannibalism, animal cruelty, or the other unmentionables that made John Waters' Pink Flamingos such a family favorite. Particularly that scene with the chicken.

But that doesn't mean there's not a connection to the cult filmmaker, better known for Hairspray. Danny Levinson, the director working with Eliot's too-cool-for-politics adman, Jimmy Siegel, belongs to Moxie Pictures, which represents filmmakers including ... Waters.

(OK, it's a little thin. But it's a well-known journalistic principle that sometimes you have to balance the tenuousness of a connection with how close it gets you to a story about cannibalism.)

A curious fact about the Governor's race is that the self-styled outsider, Tom Suozzi, is running a by-the-book political campaign. His ad, released this morning, was a traditional, introductory political spot, if a bit amped up. Spitzer, by contrast, has the establishment support but is driving insiders crazy with his refusal to stay on message and his personal control of the politics of the campaign. His first ad, "Portraits""Voice" by corporate adman Jimmy Siegel, is very different from the usual political spots. It's spare and striking. (It's also an Upstate-focused spot, so the Fargo thing kind of works.) Eliot doesn't appear, though his voice comes through at the end. Watch it here:

Script after the jump.  read more »

The Spitzer campaign announced this morning that they're hiring a Madison Avenue veteran, Jimmy Siegel, to produce their television advertising -- and that they're going up on the air next week.

The ad guy, Jimmy Siegel, also writes thrillers, but doesn't seem to have any political experience. He's best known for selling a product that every consumer advocating lawman can stand behind: credit cards. He made Visa ads for BBDO, including that Bob Dole spot, but left the agency after it lost the Visa contract last fall.

By going outside the usual field of political admakers, Spitzer will probably retain more control of the content -- he's known as a demanding client who, at one point, wrote his own ads -- and again demonstrates his skepticism of the way politics is normally done, something he demonstrated in his quick, early, unvetted selection of David Paterson as his running mate, and in his decision last year to place a round of robo-calls to voters.