Lyndon B. Johnson used a mushroom cloud. The first George Bush relied on Willie Horton. Now Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland, is trying to attract voters with ... puppies.He doesn't hate them, he says in his latest television advertisement - an arresting spot that might be unlike any political commercial you've ever seen. Bright, fresh and almost irreverent in its disregard for the conventions of campaign advertising, the 30-second segment - which, like Steele's first two advertisements, makes no mention of his party affiliation - is part of a larger strategy aimed at presenting the candidate as a Washington outsider, a regular guy who would shake things up on Capitol Hill.
The spot, the second to feature an affable Steele evidently enjoying himself as he speaks directly to the camera, is one of the more unusual entrants in this year's pageant of campaign advertisements. Los Angeles-based branding consultant Joseph Hartnett, for one, is taken with it. "Injecting humor is difficult, but I would say that he's done himself a real favor by presenting himself in this way," he said. "What he's talking about is himself as a brand."