Candidate credibility

The pattern

This still is filed under Candidate credibility.

Define

The person is the proof. Ads, kits, and spots exist to make the candidate believable, not to decorate a platform.

Mechanism

Character as medium. Voice, biography, and composure do the work that a product demo would do in commerce.

Verdict

The choice is a person, and the undecided are judging trust more than a policy PDF.

Why it works

The poster borrows the Uncle Sam recruiting pose, finger pointed out of the frame under I WANT YOU, and then hands the "you" to Roosevelt: F.D.R. sits in large type exactly where readers expect to find themselves. That turns re-election into a call-up rather than a campaign pitch, and STAY AND FINISH THE JOB frames another term as completing work already under way. The voter is not asked to pick a candidate, only to agree with a choice the nation's own symbol has already made.

The big idea

Uncle Sam, the nation's own recruiting figure, wants F.D.R., so keeping Roosevelt in office is answering a call to finish the job.

The offer

The ask: keep Roosevelt in the job, from the Independent Voters' Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Roosevelt.

Lines from the ad

I WANT YOU F.D.R.

STAY AND FINISH THE JOB!

Steal this when

Use it when you ask voters or customers to keep an incumbent, and a symbol they already trust can be shown making the choice for them.

The emotion

Written to Duty. It does neither clearly.

It borrows Uncle Sam's recruiting finger and I WANT YOU but aims the call at F.D.R., so the voter gets a duty already decided, with no act, place or date named.