2023.01.07 – 0737 – Political Voiceovers: Lead Ins and Pay Offs
Ads of either style often start with a question, another rhetorical device that gets the listener to ‘fill the vacuum’ with an answer:
· “Would you trust Tracey Garcia with your money?”
· “We gave this man the keys to the Governor’s House … do you know what he gave us in return?”
· “Just why should you trust Camila Haufman…?”
As we saw before, using a lead-in sentence may help you get into the right ‘tone zone’. That’s a short phrase that you say to yourself or aloud, before you start recording the script, that the first line can ‘react to’:
· You think: “You want to know how truthful I think they are? Well, let me ask you…”
o Then you record: “Would you trust Tracey Garcia wi th your money?”
· You think: “Some people are going to give him a second term…”
o Then you record: ““We gave this man the keys to the Governor’s House … do you know what he gave us in return?”
· You think: “People say all politicians are the same, and that’s a very good point…”
o Then you record: ““Just why should you trust Camila Haufman…?”
And the style of these ads often dictates that they end with a pay-off tag-line:
· “Vote for Zippy Verlezza”
· “The man you can trust”
· “The strong voice for our state”
You really need to land these strong statements to give the ad a sense of finality, with a downward intonation to give certainty, rather than doubtful questioning.
","author_name":"Peter Stewart"}