Embrace your story

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXmy73luV9M&wpisrc=nl_fix] The second Rahm ad has been out a while now.

If there was more out there to talk about, I'd probably not even bother with this ad.  It's not bad, but it's not particularly good either.  I like that it tells a story.  Stories are always more powerful than facts.  Compare an ad like this to the Reid or Lincoln pork ads (they brought $XX million to our state). People can connect with stories, they can put themselves in the shoes of the people in the story, stories are emotional, facts are cold and unmemorable.

Jonah Lehrer explains this effect around charitable giving on NPR: Basically, the story of one starving child doubles contributions from the fact that five million are malnourished.

The ad tells a pretty good if common story. The most powerful aspect of the ad is how it embraces what people probably already know about Rahm -- his temper, his bulldogedness, they embrace it and frame it for viewers.  Because it's not new information, but simply information put into a different frame, its probably more believable for folks.  Rahm isn't a monster or someone with a temper, but he feels the righteous indignation to fight the good fight.  More than that he wins the good fight, not for himself, but for real people who need help.