E-Mail This Article to a Friend Ad value Acclaimed documentarian and advertising pro Errol Morris had a plan for reaching swing voters. Too bad John Kerry wasn’t interested. BY ADAM REILLY
	About-faces Republicans who voted for Bush in 2000 tell why they changed their minds RICHARD DOVE, RETIRED COLONEL, USMC, AND VIETNAM VETERAN I have a Dodge pickup truck, and it’s big, red — it looks like a fire engine, it’s so big. Across the tailgate of this truck is a sign in huge letters. It’s one I created and paid for; it says SAVE THE EARTH. SEND BUSH TO MARS. I AM A REPUBLICAN. I’m getting about 80, 85 percent thumbs up. Now occasionally, I’ll get somebody to put a different finger in the air, but usually it’s the thumbs up that I get. KIM MECKLENBURG, FINANCIAL CONSULTANT AND FORMER SERGEANT, USMC I don’t know a single soldier that has served in combat that would recklessly create another war, especially a war that may not be necessary. If we’re being attacked here, bet your bottom dollar I’d pull out my boots again. I’d be right there. No war should ever be taken lightly. I’m a Republican, I’m a former US Marine, and I’m voting for John Kerry. BEN TAYLOR, COMPUTER TECHNICIAN We’ve spent over $100 million on Iraq. For what? So George Bush can strut around on an aircraft carrier and say the mission’s accomplished. Our European allies have lost respect for us. Our money is weaker now than it has been at any time in the last 12 years. And yes, I am a Republican, but I don’t respect the man who is the commander-in-chief at this time. We’ve had enough. I’ve had enough. SARAH WEST, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN He says he’s a Christian, and he’s representing Christ. If he believed in Christ like I have come to understand, then he would lead fairly and justly and honestly. I just don’t see integrity. I don’t see truthfulness. I don’t see compassion. I don’t see a desire to take responsibility. I’m a Christian. I am against abortion, but I’m voting for John Kerry. DOUG WEST, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN Bush touts compassionate conservatism. It’s not a very compassionate administration when it comes to the poor. Pre-emptive war is not something that I would consider compassionate. I am a Christian, and I really thought that Bush would bring needed morality and integrity, and I just see blatant arrogance. I did vote for Bush in 2000, and I don’t plan to vote for him in this coming election.

EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Academy Award–winning documentarian Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) offered to make a campaign commercial for John Kerry. The Kerry campaign never accepted, and Morris subsequently created a series of ads — based on conversations with Republicans who voted for George W. Bush in 2000, but are supporting Kerry this year — for the liberal group MoveOn.org. These spots, which show voters looking directly at the camera and explaining their change of heart, were filmed using Morris’s "Interrotron," a two-way-mirror device that lets people talk directly to the camera while still making eye contact with the interviewer. They resemble the "switcher" commercials Morris shot for Apple Computer, and were compiled from 30-some hours of interviews conducted at a studio in Canton.

MoveOn.org ran a full-page ad featuring nine Republican switchers in the New York Times on August 30, the opening day of the Republican National Convention, and five of the video spots were broadcast nationally on Fox. But more than 60 other Republican-switcher ads Morris created have never been seen by the public — and, unless some liberal 527 organization pays to run them before November 2, they never will be. (The central item on Morris’s Web site, www.errolmorris.com, is a plea for assistance from any 527 willing to fund another ad buy.) As a group, the Republican-switcher ads are elegant and compelling, a welcome departure from the swelling strings and sonorous intonations that mark most political advertising. If this year’s election is as close as 2000’s was — and if Bush wins — Kerry’s failure to work with Morris may well go down in the annals of regrettable political decisions.

Last week, the Phoenix spoke with Morris in his East Cambridge studios about the switcher ads, the state of political advertising, and the branding of John Kerry. An edited transcript follows.

Q: What was the genesis of these ads?

A: The underlying idea is that the election is going to be decided by a very small group of voters. The electorate, as we all know, is polarized; there’s a group that’s going to vote for Kerry no matter what, and there’s a group that’s going to vote for Bush no matter what. What about these so-called undecideds, or people who will abandon their traditional voting patterns and switch? What about these people? How do you reach them? How do you talk to these people? I’m not particularly interested in just simply creating ads that make Democrats feel better. I’m interested in creating ads that will have some influence on that group.

Q: Do you think the Republicans are effectively targeting those undecideds? Are they doing better than the Democrats?

A: Yes. I think that’s the clear answer. And I think there are many reasons for that. It’s odd — I have these two independent careers: I’m an advertising guy, and I’m a filmmaker. As an advertising guy, I constantly have to think about questions about the nature of the brand — the story that we’re trying to create about the brand. I’m not saying that it’s the same thing, although it might for all intents and purposes come down to the same thing. But what you have to do, in any kind of advertising campaign, is to tell a consistent story. And I would argue that there is no consistent story emerging from the Democratic side, and a far more consistent story emerging from the Republicans. By consistent, I don’t say true or false; I just say consistent.

Q: How would you paraphrase the Republican story?

A: That George Bush stood by this country through 9/11, and ultimately that he was strong and forceful in his response to 9/11, and that is what is needed in order to make America safe. I think it’s very, very, very simple. They have never tried to tell us that George Bush is a hero because of his service [during] Vietnam. In fact, they’ve told us quite clearly the opposite — that George Bush was a ne’er-do-well, an alcoholic, a fuck-up. And that he overcame this history. He found Christ, he found a purpose in life, he transformed himself. It’s one of the reasons why the Republicans can attack Kerry abut his Vietnam War record, because Kerry based his convention around his heroism in Vietnam. Attacking Bush because of his failure to fight, his avoidance of his military duties, actually does nothing. Because he’s already conceded the point.