For the left's entire existence on earth, it had a youth brand.
We are the voice of a new generation was its identity long before it was that of Pepsi, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. The left is the wave of the future. It represents a new generation that will no longer put up with the discredited institutions and approaches of the past.
That's why leftists who know advertising are freaking out over the Mother's Day from Tom Steyer ad, the Dem billionaire donor. Not only is the ad so treacly it could have from the Hillary Clinton campaign (even The Children are Listening was better than this) , but it violates the first rule of lefty messaging.
This is the kind of ad a Republican could have made about a lefty college. There's the upper class mother worried about her son's politics. But the message is, "Don't let your kids grow up to be Republicans."
1. It's a Reefer Madness ad warning about the terrible things that the youth are up to. There's no surer way of making whatever they're up look cool than ads like this.
2. The Democrat here is an older woman while the Republican is a college kid. That's the opposite of the brand that the left has worked hard to cultivate.
3. Sneering contempt pervades the ad. It's purpose is to damage the GOP brand. But its most receptive audiences are lefties who already agree with it. And they're going to shrug because it isn't hateful enough. That's the usual problem with lefty virtue signaling. In this case, it builds Tom Steyer's brand. And that's all he really seems to want to do.
4. While many in the conservative movement bemoan a youth drifting leftward, Steyer and his people are worried about them becoming Republicans. But urging their parents to tell them not to be Republicans can't help but backfire. And so it's really urging upper class lefties to destroy the GOP by warning that it's a threat to the youth. Political reefer madness.
This is the kind of ad that Republicans would have made if they could write lefty ads. Instead Tom Steyer thought this was a good idea.
Will they never learn?