Caracas Chronicles

As the campaign hits its last few days, Chavismo is relying heavily on negative ads. I guess it was just a matter of time. They tried some positive ones earlier, but it was obvious they weren’t working.

It seems they had a moment of clarity: “Why are we wasting resources pushing Cilia Flores and Ernesto Villegas, when we can scare people that the opposition will take their pensions away, will end the missions and destroy everything if they win?”

Yet, watching these ads, you can sense the lack of conviction in this new strategy. The tone is lighter. They even dare to use the “it was all just a bad dream” cliche in one of them. The acting is terrible and the production values feel cheap. They want to be negative without looking like it.

Maybe they’re holding back for now and will unleash the worst in the next few days. Or maybe this is the best they have to offer. Who knows? One more thing: To the producers of the last ad, if your best casting choice for a villain is a Pablo Iglesias-look alike, you have failed. You had one job!

Meanwhile, the opposition is narrowing its message. For example, this ad used the nightmarish scenario of finding you car stripped out of tires and battery, using it as a metaphor of the country and the pledge to rebuild.

But the biggest issue that the MUD’s campaign is hanging into is definitely the lines.

Either to establish concern for our future generations or as a rallying cry to people to stand up and vote, MUD has turned long queues into a theme of their campaign. And yes, it’s working.

But not all of their 30-second spots are like that. Some are some simplistic and harmless like this one.

I don’t hate it. But I don’t love love it either. It could have been way worse. Like this one.