Meg Whitman's Mailer - "Which Road Will We Take?"

One week after receiving a mailer from the Democratic Party, bashing on Meg Whitman, I received another mailer. Whether or not it was in response to the previous mailer, I have no idea. But I thought it was more effective...

By looking at the front page of this mailer, we wouldn't really be able to tell who the mailer came from. Nothing on the front page indicates which party is sponsoring it. The front page shows a road splitting into two paths, one going towards economic prosperity, the other one to nowhere. Since I had gotten a mailer from the Democratic Party the previous week, I figured this must've been from Meg Whitman.

As soon as I opened the flier, I knew for sure it was from Meg Whitman. The right side shows a picture of Meg standing in a field by the ocean smiling. The sun is shining on her face. She looks optimistic. Green is the predominant color on this side. The subheads of the text are in green, Meg is wearing a green shirt and she is standing in a green field.

On the other side of the flier, we see a picture of Jerry Brown with a blank stare and arms crossed in front of the capitol building. The subheads of the text describing Jerry Brown's policies are in red. The images on this side are very sharp and do not have much color at all. The pictures almost seem cold.

The mailer ends on the back page with a nice picture of Meg on a green background with a quote from her on her vision for a "New California."

The reason why I thought this mailer was more effective than the last one was because it showed what the candidate stood for rather than just doing negative publicity. The last mailer I received from the Democratic Party only told me that Meg Whitman was going to spend billions of dollars. I had no idea what the Democratic Party was doing different from Meg. Even though Meg Whitman's mailer still included a very negative page on Jerry Brown, it at least included some of her beliefs and values. Meg Whitman's mailer also included the link to her website for more information and cited her sources for her information on Jerry Brown.

Democratic Party Mailer - Meg Whitman advocates to make it Billions Worse

I received something interesting in the mail this week:

All I can say is that after seeing that, I did not feel like voting for Meg Whitman... And I'm a conservative. I'm not really that easily persuaded, but this kind of propaganda does bring up some questions.

The key message of this 11" by 17" mailer is that Meg Whitman will make California lose money. Money that as we all know, California does not have. The visuals in this mailer clearly put Meg Whitman in a negative light. First of all, the pictures of her definitely do not put her in value. Either she is sticking her face up like an authoritative figure telling us what to do, or she has an awkward pose.

What I found that made this mailer the most negative was the use of arrows going down, Ben Franklins, and the color red. Any one of those elements on their own could mean a lot of things, however combined they have a pretty clear message: We're losing money. When we think of the color red in respect to money, it usually means that the account balance is below zero. Add Meg Whitman's face in the picture and it says:
Meg Whitman = Losing Money.

Without even reading any text, I could already tell what the mailer was saying. Those images made it clear enough.

Jerry Brown's Ad - Real Meg

"Shouldn't Character Matter?"

This is the last line and theme of this video portraying Meg Whitman in a dark light.

Meg Whitman was the first to start the attack ads against Jerry Brown and he is now responding with his own called: The Real Meg.

The Real Meg has done some insider trading, leading her to rip millions from insider stock deals. She only paid the money back after being sued by Ebay employees and the Judge ruled in their favor. In her last year at Ebay, Meg gave herself a 120 million dollar bonus while 10% of her company was laid off.

According to Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman is even being called corrupt in her own political party.

By using sinister music, a deep calming voice, and dark images, we very quickly come to the idea that this video is not portraying Meg in a good light. If this was a scene in a common hollywood movie, we would all know that the bad guy had entered the scene. This is what Meg is being portrayed as and it is Jerry Brown's response to her negative attacks.

Meg Whitman's Baloney Ad

Meg Whitman came out with a new 30 second Ad on October 1st saying that she disagrees with the presumption that California cannot be governed anymore. She calls it "Baloney."
Meg uses her business credibility and experience and says that those practices can directly be applied to government. Even though she clearly states that government should not be ran like a business, she believes the accountability and clear focus of business is applicable to government.

This ad is very basic in a sense that it's purpose is only to give general information on Meg and her vision for California. It does not attack the opponent or address any specific topic. She shares her vision for a change in California and her key focus points: More Jobs, Stopping Wasteful Spending, and Improve California Schools.