It is impossible to get free advertising these days, unless you are a liberal Democrat and a friend of MSNBC. During a Friday morning segment of Morning Joe, fill-in co-host Willie Geist brought on special guests Donny Deutsch and Susan Del Percio to all collectively drool over Joe Biden’s new ad.
After playing it on air in its entirety, Deutsch couldn't contain his excitement:
I say bravo. That looks like the ad of a winner. It's interesting, you contrast the Trump ad trying to define Biden. And an incumbent only wins a race when he can define the challenge on his own terms. He's not doing it. He's trying to set up -- he's running an ad right now that in Biden's America there will be no police, you won't be able to get police on the phone. Yet Biden, between the combination of the family message and the message about buying American and bringing American jobs back, Biden is defining himself, very Reaganesque. You know, a lot of people were very concerned about Biden as a candidate, "Oh, we're getting a guy, he's not strong." I think he's pitch perfect for what we need now, comfort, solidness, and he is just playing on point. And once again, I -- you contrast what Trump's doing and what Biden's doing. One feels like a desperate loser. One feels like actually the already incumbent winner.
Him labeling Biden’s ad “Reaganesque” was interesting, since the left has hated Reagan since the moment he became president back in 1980. Now, long after his death, they have strange new respect for the Republican that they could not provide when they were calling him a war criminal and a racist.
Del Percio went next, laughably identified as a supposed “Republican Strategist,” but sounding like a DNC spokesperson as she hailed the commercial:
You get stability, you get relatability, you get someone who is putting the needs of the country ahead of themselves. And when you look at the recent polling and you see Donald Trump, "Does he care about people like me?" He's getting crushed on it. And that is where he basically -- it was those folks who felt that, in 2016, he would be their champion. He is not, and they know it. This ad just brings out -- streams a perfect message, and it is in such stark contrast of what the President is doing. And that's the other thing that's worth noting. He's also disciplined on message. This is the perfect thing to happen, to release the day of a speech -- the day after a speech like the one he gave yesterday about bringing America back. So there's a continuity and there's discipline. Those are two things Donald Trump does not have.
Bravo to the Biden communications team. They know that any ad of theirs played on MSNBC will be collectively drooled over like a Saint Bernard, essentially giving them a two for one deal when it comes to free advertising.
Choice Hotels sponsored this selective attention being played to Biden advertisements.
Read the full transcript below to learn more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
7-10-20
WILLIE GEIST: The Biden campaign is out just this morning with a new ad with the message about the power of family. Here is a first look.
AD: He took the train four hours every day so he could have breakfast with his boys in the morning. He tucked them in at night. People in Washington didn't get why Joe Biden would travel all that way. But in neighborhoods all over this country, this no-distance parent won't go for the kids. Never underestimate the power of family or the sacrifices people will make for their children. That love, that hope, that determination. That's what fuels the American dream. It's why you stay up paying bills, sign up for that extra shift, worry about schools and health care. When Joe Biden traveled those four hours, he wasn't just going home for his kids. He was going to work for them, too, just like he will for yours.
GEIST: Donny Deutsch, you are our resident ad man, what do you make of the ad, especially when it fits into what Joe Biden said yesterday in his economic speech, that he said he comes from a working family, something that Donald Trump cannot say.
DANNY DEUTSCH: I say bravo. That looks like the ad of a winner. It's interesting, you contrast the Trump ad trying to define Biden. And an incumbent only wins a race when he can define the challenge on his own terms. He's not doing it. He's trying to set up -- he's running an ad right now that in Biden's America there will be no police, you won't be able to get police on the phone. Yet Biden, between the combination of the family message and the message about buying American and bringing American jobs back, Biden is defining himself, very Reaganesque. You know, a lot of people were very concerned about Biden as a candidate, "Oh, we're getting a guy, he's not strong." I think he's pitch perfect for what we need now, comfort, solidness, and he is just playing on point. And once again, I -- you contrast what Trump's doing and what Biden's doing. One feels like a desperate loser. One feels like actually the already incumbent winner.
GEIST: Donny Deutsch with that notable subtlety he's know for. Susan Del Percio, put together the ad with the speech yesterday from Joe Biden, what do you get?
SUSAN DEL PERCIO: You get stability, you get relatability, you get someone who is putting the needs of the country ahead of themselves. And when you look at the recent polling and you see Donald Trump, "Does he care about people like me?" He's getting crushed on it. And that is where he basically -- it was those folks who felt that, in 2016, he would be their champion. He is not, and they know it. This ad just brings out -- streams a perfect message, and it is in such stark contrast of what the President is doing. And that's the other thing that's worth noting. He's also disciplined on message. This is the perfect thing to happen, to release the day of a speech -- the day after a speech like the one he gave yesterday about bringing America back. So there's a continuity and there's discipline. Those are two things Donald Trump does not have.
