The TV campaign

The TV campaign is in full swing. The ads have been up for awhile. Party of the Region's went up first. People picking through trash, cold and hungry, all black and white. Things were better with us and they can be better again is the theme. (On cheap oil and natural gas once again?)

Our Ukraine's ad harks back to the OR and says, paraphrasing, "We said no to bandits and took back our rights" and ends with "Don't abandon the Maidan!" I really wish they would get better advice. Maybe they know something I don't but the people I talk to think the Maidan was betrayed by Yuschenko, at teh very least. And some say by Yulia too.

Yulia isn't advertising but she is having rallies that give out McDonald's coupons. The personal touch?

We did see an ad for Viche which was bizarre. Kind of hard to explain but it had Japanese style drummers and it looked sort of New Age. To me it was what a Scientology ad would look like if they advertised.

They are an odd party. They have a telegenic spokeswoman and they feature some younger candidates. I am suspicious that they have been set up by some opposition money bags to siphon off support from Our Ukraine--maybe younger voters. They were one of the two parties that were asked for a response to Yuschenko's address on the TV channel we watched the other night. The other was Yanukovych.

Yanukovych for his part is talking issues. Maybe that's because his American handlers are hammering that into him. That's a change though. In the last election, he relied on his machine to make his case with administrative resources and bullied and threatened the rest of the time. To see him talking about issues is a whole lot better, even though he's not all that facile with them.

Pora has been advertising too. They are pushing Klitchko and their ads look an awful lot like Our Ukraine's in color and in style. Maybe they see themselves as the rightful heirs of the Maidan?

The ads have been relatively sedate. We'll see if it stays that way.