Projo Politics Blog

In the age of sound bites and nano-scale attention spans, 30-second TV ads are the norm and some spots are as short as 15 seconds. People occasionally run one-minute ads, but two minutes? Almost never.

But that’s just what North Providence Mayor A. Ralph Mollis did in his campaign for secretary of state.

Mollis, who won the election and takes office in three weeks, had two-minute spots on TV during the primary and the general election campaigns. The ads featured him talking directly to viewers, as well as others sharing their ideas on why Mollis might make a good secretary of state.

“I wanted to try to have some quality time with the people of Rhode Island,” Mollis said.

During the primary campaign, the ad ran about 50 times on the Rhode Island News Channel, Channel 5 for Cox Cable subscribers, for a total cost of less than $5,000 — a veritable steal compared with the cost of advertising during prime time on network TV. At the other end of the spectrum, Mollis said his campaign paid $2,000 for a single airing of a 30-second spot on network TV, although not every time slot cost that much.

Although fewer people watch the Rhode Island News Channel than watch network TV, Mollis said he saw evidence the 2-minute ad was effective. “People said, ‘I saw your two-minute ad. It was different. It was unique. It was sincere. I liked it,’ ” he said.

To Political Scene’s knowledge, Mollis’ 2-minute ad was the longest TV ad of the 2006 campaign in Rhode Island. (State Sen. Frank T. Caprio, who won the office of general treasurer, had a 4-minute ad, but in a different format: on-demand TV, so viewers had to take an affirmative step to turn to a channel specifically to see Caprio’s ad, which included biographical information and his goals for the office.)

Mollis’ 2-minute ad also aired on network TV, although not in the most expensive time slots and not as many times as it aired on the cable news station. The campaign also had 30-second and 60-second ads, and overall spent “well over $100,000” on advertising, Mollis said.

-- Journal staff writers Elizabeth Gudrais and Edward Fitzpatrick

---