. you -- make c-span your primary source. >> that is your election preview is afternoon hosted by the washington post. posted by chris van hollen, who chairs the democratic senatorial campaign committee, coming up at 4:00 eastern on c-span. also this afternoon, president trump will mark the 35th anniversary of the bombing, two hundred 41 u.s. service members and 58 french soldiers were killed in 1983 by suicide but -- bombers. the president expected to discuss policy during the white house commemoration. more live debate coverage this evening as well, first at 7:00 p.m. eastern. mcmaster debates democrat james smith in the south carolina governor's race. then at 9:00, the wyoming u.s. senate debate between the public and senator -- and democrat --

with 12 days until the election, make c-span your primary source for camp in 2018. campaign 2018. >> new york times best-selling author joni is our guest. her live call-in program on sunday, november 4, at noon eastern. "a sparkrecent book is of light. her other books include -- 20 more novels. she has written five issues of the woman -- wonder woman comic for d.c. comic spirit alive sunday, november 4, from noon until 3:00 p.m. eastern and be sure to watch next month one author brad will be our guest. on book tv. on c-span two. >> at about this time, we like to take stock of political ads.

stock of political ads, which are good and which are bad. consultants,edia .odd harris and steve mcmahon what makes a good ad? what is the metric of success? caller: and add the people can understand and remember -- an ad that people can understand and remember. there are so many ads out there that it is difficult to make the impression that you want because they go by and sometimes they are stacked. and at that is memorable, funny -- an ad that is memorable, funny, self decker -- self-deprecating, that is the key. caller: i would add something that can tell a story, which is often really hard to do in 30 seconds.

some of the best political advertising does that. , you not just tell a story have to tell the story in a way that advances your message and narrative. if you are able to tell a really good story in a way that is messagee and deliver a that moves the ball for you, you have probably got a pretty good ad. host: 30 seconds is the standard length, but we are in the age of web ad. some of these are much longer than 30 seconds. can you talk about how that works and what the strategy is? , more andse things more advertising you want to be what we call screen agnostic. you want to create a piece of advertising that can work whether somebody is watching it on television, on their computer , on their ipad, their phone.

the benefit, one of the great things about the digital advertising is that you are not 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds. you can make it as long as you are able to attract eyeballs and key people watching. what that allows you to do is to go deeper into somebody's story. so literally, these little mini movies that are like two and three minutes long that really connect a candidate to the voter in an emotional way. let's talk about host: -- host: let's talk about perhaps one of the most widely successful. [video clip] doriss is a story about -- doors, a lot of them. that is me, and air force combat

veteran and a mom. is all thathind me is left from the aircraft i was flying. i was on a rescue mission in afghanistan as a combat search and rescue pilot. i heard the windshield crack and realized i had been shot. we airlifted the patient's out. after taking more fire, we crashed a few miles away. memories wasst another door, my dad throwing my mom through a glass one. three years later, mom got the courage to walk out the door and she opened a new one for my sister and me here in texas. here, i put my foot on the gas and followed my dream to be a pilot, and that meant opening, pushing, and sometimes kicking through every door in my way. host: that ad goes on about another two minutes or so, but

what makes it so successful? guest: it is what it talks about. you are seeing someone story being told by them in a pretty interesting, compelling way. the man who made that ad wanted to be a filmmaker but came a media consent -- media consultant. his whole motive is to tell a story in 30 seconds, but if you give him a minute and a half or two, he can still -- tell a story richer and deeper. one of the things you see when you are watching television, we are seeing fewer of the ads where it is scary music and everything is dark and gray and saying,st on the screen john smith raised your taxes 58 times. you are seeing negative ads being told through third parties that make them much more effective. this ad when viral.

i think she raised $2.5 million to $3 million on the ad when it went viral. it is pretty remarkable. host: i want to invite viewers to join the conversation, let us know what you like or do not like about political ads. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 host: todd harris, your thoughts? guest: it was phenomenal. anytime a new ad comes out from a campaign where all of a sudden the media consultants are emailing it around, that is how i found out about it. it was not from a news story. i had several media consultants email it to me and say, have you seen this? it does an incredible job of telling her story in a way that is, as steve said, visually

compelling. it makes you want to keep watching, which when you are doing advertising for the digital space, especially on what is called pre-roll, the video you have to watch before you watch the video that you actually want to watch, on pre-roll advertising you need to hold people because they can click that button that says skip ad. does an like this incredible job of holding the eyeball. host: this is an example of one of the more traditional 32nd tv commercials. [video clip] i am brian camp -- >> i am brian kemp. i am so conservative i blow up government spending. i own guns but no one is taking them away. my chainsaw is ready to rip away regulations. i have a big truck in case i need to roundup criminal illegals and take them home myself.

yet, i just said that -- yes, i just said that. if you want a politically incorrect conservative, that is me. host: that got something like 400,000 views as of yesterday. can you tell us what went into making it and what made it successful? guest: that was a collaborative spot that my firm produced. we are real proud of that we were brought in late into his campaign. there was maybe five to six weeks left in the primary. he was down about 7% in the polls and the campaign said, we need something that -- not quite a hail mary, but something that will shake up this race. we quickly got to know a little bit about brian. the original inspiration for googledwas if people

the dollar shave club, they sell razor blades, but their online advertising is fantastic. we wanted to do something that kind of mimicked that, with lots of quick vignettes. host: from a democrats' perspective -- democrat's perspective, your ad -- your thoughts? to tuneou want people it in. in a republican primary, the harsher, trump-ian kind of rhetoric works well, and it got him the nomination which i do not know if he was able to get. he did exactly what he needed to do, but it's sort of made him trump. in the georgia risk -- race, you have donald trump running against aim more moderate

candidate. guest: i would not call her mom -- moderate. kemp is now donald trump and that may or may not be successful. host: political advertising on the television and web, that is our subject for the next 45 minutes. now would be a good time to let us know about your favorite ad of the cycle. elena is up in illinois, republican. fallon,i enjoy jimmy especially when he does talk about donald trump. he does it without demeaning donald trump. he is very funny. he brings attention to donald trump, and he is the best late-night comedian and very kindhearted too. think that when a political candidate is running with $500,000 in their pocket to

dispose of, what utter way to do it than to help -- better way to do it than to help somebody pay their mortgage off or make a donation to lower the cost of hospitalization for people that are suffering and need to recover. host: if i told you the projection in 2018 is up to as much as $2.9 billion, that is what is expected to be spent on all political advertising the cycle, what do you think? caller: that is appalling, especially when we are trying to make ends meet with the high insurance premium. i am paying $2000 a month for an insurance premium. we are not taking any vacations. host: thanks for the call. todd harris on the growth in spending on political ads, how

much is it for a candidate's budget? guest: it depends entirely on the nature of the race, but if you are running statewide, you want to be budgeting -- a good campaign will budget about 75% of their total spend on voter contact. that does not necessarily mean television. --t could be male, phones, , but you want to use 75% of the money to talk to voters as opposed to administrative staff. it is definitely the biggest chunk. host: the other issue she brings up his celebrities speaking about politicians. i do not know if jimmy fallon has done an ad, but can you talk about celebrity involvement in the ad making process? guest: down in texas, ted cruz is seeing the effect of

celebrity involvement with a prominent director making some ads on behalf of beto o'rourke. host: this is from the political action community, teaming up with richard linklater. [video clip] >> somebody left this on my door the other day, ted cruz telephone taxes. come on. somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the kennedy assassination, i would not be kissing their ass. you should give them a few choice words or drag their ass by the would shed and kick their ass, ted. come on, ted. >> not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. guest: that is one of the best ads and that is one of the most negative ads even though he delivers the lines with a smile on his face.

you want to hear the . -- here the next line. host: he is an actor. guest: it is not often you are watching a political ad and wishing it is longer. nost: it is a fantastic ad matter what somebody thinks of ted cruz. i think just about everybody laughed at that. it is one of those ads where the message is so effective because voters do not realize that they are being delivered a political message. it is not until you start thinking about it later that that add its you at the gut level. it is not an intellectual message. it is not like, you are three polling points that we need to deliver. it is completely at the emotional level and the best advertising usually is. it is a character play. when you think about a political character, there is performance

attributes that they do their job well, show up, vote the way you would like, there are character attributes, do admire , and then there is called connected to the future attributes which is their vision for future. this goes squarely in the character box. you might think this guy is one thing but when you hear these things, you might think entirely different. it is about the character of a man, what kind of man tolerates these insults to his wife and family, and is that kind of -- the kind of man you want to support? host: do you feel that hollywood wants to get more involved in political advertising these days? guest: ever since arnold schwarzenegger which todd worked for. whont worked for val kilmer wanted to become governor of new mexico. i said, why? he said, since arnold schwarzenegger did it everyone

in hollywood wants to. everybody in hollywood wants to be a politician. everyone who is a politician wants to hang out with hollywood celebrities. --t: what about holiday hollywood directors doing what you do? guest: this is a great example. this is a wonderful addition. everybody is out there to participate. host: paul is up next and ohio, republican. caller: how are you folks doing. and i think topic in this environment, the political ads that are running now seem to put fuel to the fire of all the political disagreements we have it infuriates people when they are watching it home all of the ads of negativity. if i see a negative ad by one of the candidates who tries to dig up a bunch of dirt about anything, i will just turn the

station. you are not going to grab my attention by running a negative ad about somebody else. i just flip the station, so you lost my vote. shown the first ad about the individual who gave a story about their particular life, then i will do the fact finding myself as to whether or not i think it is credible or not. the opportunity on these ads is for the politician to get their face out, their name, and give a little bit of snippet of their life and what they believe in to what they want the public have faith in, and based on what kind of credentials. the negative ad, i just flip the station. host: todd harris, on the negative ads? guest: every media consultant

goes through this every single cycle, because when you go into focus groups and show them a negative ad, everybody hates them. they say exactly what this caller just said. when you put negative ads up on tv, the candidates everywhere they go, people will come up to them and say why are you running these negative ads? the fact is, they work. the reason why we run negative ads is because they work. host: how do we know? guest: you can see it in the polling. if for example i am running an ad that says steve wants to raise taxes, you start training -- tracking in your data, does steve mcmahon want to raise taxes? when you seen that line going up , you know it is having an impact. guest: one time we did a panel

focus group which means you take a bunch of people in a room and show them a bunch of ads, and bring them back in two weeks. we showed them a bunch of ads and heard what todd described. you bring them back two weeks later and say, two weeks ago we showed you dose -- a bunch of ads. tell us everything you remember. they remember the negative ads, not the positive ones. the reason you are seeing more of the kind of ads the viewer or admiring, the doors add others executed like movies or short stories, that gives people a better chance of remembering the ad. it is a good thing for politics. guest: there is also, without bogging us down into campaign finance issues, but one of the reasons why especially candidates for federal office

are doing more ads like the doors ad is because with the rise of all of these outside super pac's, the super pac's are carrying the negative message. campaigns used to have to do both. you used to have to run your positive and negative spots. there are federal campaigns we work on these days where if there is an outside group running negative ads against your opponent, 100% of your positive,s message is which means you have more opportunities to tell stories like that. host: amy mcgrath, her announcement in kentucky six district running against the congressman. [video clip] , iwhen i was 12 years old knew i wanted to fly fighter jets and land on aircraft carriers because that is the toughest flying you can do. when i was 13, my congressman

told me i could not fly in combat. he thought women ought to be protected and not allowed to serve in combat. i never got a letter back from i senator mitch mcconnell. -- my senator mitch mcconnell. i wrote every member of the house services committee and asked them to change the law. couldn't,em told me i and then i got into the naval academy, that is when they changed the law. i am amy mcgrath and i love this country. i am a marine and i was the first women marine -- women marine to fly in an f eight in combat. -- i am running against andy who said he would vote enthusiastically to take health care away from a quarter million kentuckians. host: taking your calls this morning about political

advertisement, fred is up next in cherry hill, new jersey, the line for democrats. caller: living where i do in south jersey, i get to see ads for both new jersey and pennsylvania. guest: lucky you. caller: the best one is one for the governor running for reelection in pennsylvania that features a dog name libre and it is about the laws they signed for dogs and cats. many, i cannotso pick any particular one out. for the two senate candidates in new jersey are almost entirely negative. i see so many negative ads for congressional races, it is just a complete turnoff. i will be glad when election day has come and gone and i will not

have to look at these things anymore. host: todd harris? guest: i always encourage anyone who wants to get into media consulting, go out and spend a little time in these targeted districts or targeted media markets. when you are in your hotel room, turn on local tv, because it really gives you a sense of what people at home are being exposed to. i was in iowa a few days ago and was watching local tv, and literally every single ad was a political ad, everything from the governor's race all the way down to local legislative races. i would say 90% of them looked exactly like. they were indistinguishable from each other. strategistng to two veteran media political consultants.

give folks a sense of what you do at something else strategies. guest: we make political advertising mostly for candidate campaigns and outside groups. we do a little bit of corporate work, but our job is to tell stories with video and pictures. when we meet with the candidate, we will start dissect in their lives,- dissecting their their character, and think of the best way to package their story in a way that is compelling and delivers a message. host: how long have you been in this business? guest: i have been in politics forever. we started this firm about 10 years ago. host: steve mcmahon? local strategies. guest: we do less political candidate work but we are storytellers for clients. regardless of whether the client is a political organization or

party, or a corporation or brand, the goal is to tell their story in an effective and compelling way that is authentic to them, and most people from a perception they might presently hold to a perception you want them to hold. it is similar to a political campaign, regardless of whether it is a political candidate or party or organization. guest: one of the things we see a lot -- and steve is the master at this -- the corporate clients that we have, the reason why they would hire a firm like ours -- and steve has a political background as well -- because so many corporations now say we want to make an ad that has the kind of impact that political advertising has.

>> republican, good morning. >> good morning. thank you. a question and they are connected. largely as we have heard so far, a lot of the problems we are dealing with right now is everyone is inundated with all information and then we are expected in our minds to think, ok, now it is political season attention to thisention to and i'm still getting hammered with advertisements going on in the world that 10 years ago i never even knew about. then here is an added out a senator from new jersey is a crook and here is an ad and this and that. how douestion to you is,

you as advertisers and marketers , cut through all the noise to try and actually get the message three or eight seconds of a youtube video? do you find there are and do you find there's any correlation with the inundation people are feeling, that that's affecting the voter turnout going down every year, that tired of being hammered by ads? >> great question. thisctually, voter turnout year is probably going to be higher than it's been in a as far going back maybe back as 1914, looking at the early vote numbers and just the enthusiasm frankly on both sides. and one of the things about the advertising, you're absolutely right. are inundated with it. you go to a hotel in iowa or anywhere and you'll just watch wall to wall. and almost all of them look the same. as ad makers, your job is to

tell a story in an authentic, compelling way, about your candidate, and do it in a way that people will remember it. one of the old rules of politics you used to have to show an ad for 1,000 gross rating points, which means every viewer needed to see it 10 times in it.r to get the only reason you needed to see it 10 times is it wasn't memorable. to bang it into their head. now you can actually get two or 1,000ads into the same gross rating points, which is a better strategy, a more getresting campaign and you to deliver more messages. a categorylly have that we call clutter cutters -- category of advertising designed to cut through all of the clutter on television. it places a premium on storytelling, a premium on not tryingemium on

to do too much but do one thing really, really effectively. >> authentic, compelling, memorable, the terms you used. dan helmer did it with this ad? of six democrats running in virginia. ♪[music] .> congresswoman >> hey, isn't that congresswoman the bar?back there at >> sure is. >> but you can't get her to hold hall. >> we can do better than that. we've lost that loving feeling. >> no, dan! ♪[singing]

trying hard not to show it ♪ ♪ but barbara barbara ♪ ♪ you know it lost that feeling ♪ been ♪se you've ♪ we've lost that loving feeling gone ♪t's gone gone ♪ you've got to go ♪ >> speaking of val ki kilmer... >> yes. >> of the three, a authentic, compelling, and memorable, it is memorable, but it's not memory you want viewers to have of you. it's not compelling. he was throwing a hail mary in a was crowded, very expensive, probably only had one ad to run. done.is one didn't get it

he would have been better off hiring mark putnam which is what actually the winner did. and i'm just -- i'm sorry. i'm sorry for you, sir. >> one of the best things that a candidate can do is be self-deprecating. you don't get that from watching this, because you get the sense that he actually kind of believes that he's -- >> top gun. >> top gun, yes. embarrassing for him actually. >> you used the term clutter cutter earlier. reynolds in iowa. >> hubble help line. >> yes sir, fred hubble will be taxes. >> about $1,000 per family. >> that's how it works. i know groceries are expensive, but so are fred's ideas! and sales tax are all going up. >> liberal fred. he's going to raise taxes and

you're not gonna like it. >> if you don't want your taxes don't vote for fred hubble. >> hubble help line! >> so that's a spot that we did for kim reynolds, who is the governor of iowa. example of an clutter cutter. it doesn't look -- there's inhing else on television iowa right now that looks like that. ourave been talking about opponents' tax plan for weeks and weeks and weeks. a way atnted to find the end to really reinforce that it in a way that was fun and a little bit funny, ad actually just started today. >> white plains, new york, is next. democrat. good morning. >> good morning. thank you for c-span. guests.u for these i'm thinking about the cost of the governor's race going on in illinois right now.

thinking about the money being thrown into different candidates' races. that your twong guests are as much a part of the problem that you tried to segmentin the previous about political civility. gentlemen, how do we restore civility to our political discourse if smart guys like you createng your best to divisiveness and distinguish your own candidates? thank you. question. you might be surprised, and some of your viewers might not like todd and i wrote into this interview -- rode into this together. we've been friends a long time. we work on opposite sides of the aisle, sometimes for candidates who compete directly. but we're civil. that politicsson can't be civil. i do agree that the tone right is dangerous. i think the recent events with thatipe bombs indicate there's -- we're living in a different time right now. house,nk god the white

even yesterday, said it's time to kind of tone it down and come more.er a little bit you know, i'm hopeful that will happen. optimistic, but maybe it's a start. >> do you think we'll see that in political advertisements? >> i don't think you'll see it in political advertisements. but the trat of the matter is -- is, mostthe matter political advertisements, they're not calling the opponent names that you sometimes hear on the stump from president, as much as i hate to say that. and you sometimes hear it from the left, aimed at the president, which i don't like to see either. most of the political ads are about issue and differences. and they're hard-hitting. they'rethe most part, not demonizing. they might be making fun of someone's character, like the ted cruz ad, but they're not people to attack reporters. they're not inciting people to political violence.

and that's a line that should never be crossed. is that i haven't any any advertising or candidate advertising this cycle that is anywhere near as as watching an hour of cable news. know, our news has become so -- it's so divisive, because, of know, it's a reflection what is happening, which is all advertising is. up toising holds a mirror the public. and, you know, politicians are public opinion entrepreneurs. they will happily sell whatever buying.ic is >> newport, richie, florida is next. an independent. good morning. >> hi. morning, john. how are you guys doing this morning? >> doing well. or twove just a second to ask you if you could ask your guest a couples