As Dems Look to Sell Infrastructure During the Midterm Campaign, They’ll Need the Visuals

Image Credit: jjwithers

Campaign history will repeat itself in some ways in 2022 — at least for Democrats. The left once again has to appeal to voters by marketing major pieces of legislation that Democratic lawmakers have pushed through Congress. Selling the infrastructure bill, for example, is similar in some ways to the challenge Democratic media consultants faced promoting the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

One of the big differences between 2022 and 2010 is that Democratic practitioners have the benefit of having gone through the COVID-19 pandemic cycle, which in some cases required them to expand their creative repertoire specifically when it comes to gathering b-roll.  

Democratic media consultant Martha McKenna told C&E that once the infrastructure improvements related to the bill start, “they’ll provide real-time visual evidence of Biden’s leadership on the bipartisan effort.” 

But how do you turn the visuals from a giant hole-in-the-ground construction project into effective political messaging? With interviews. 

“Through our work with Unite the Country Now, we’ve begun producing content that tells the stories of Americans who have already seen the positive effects of those funds in their local communities,” McKenna said. “For those stories, we’re shooting all original footage with real people in their homes, their neighborhoods, and their workplaces.” 

Leaning into more original footage is something media consultants on both sides are doing post-2020 after finding the hospital b-roll was inadequate and that footage shot pre-pandemic looked hopelessly dated. Still, it’s not easy to do those kinds of shoots en masse.  

To wit, McKenna noted that the infrastructure bill, formally titled the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will provide funding to repair roads, bridges and expand broadband internet access in nearly every congressional district. That’s a lot of stories to tell and a lot of b-roll to either buy or create.

“From a creative standpoint, there will always be times when it will make sense to just grab a stock shot — whether that be for budget, expediency, or safety reasons,” McKenna said. “But the legislative successes of the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats have given our party the ability to capture an incredible amount of new, original, and compelling content in the coming months, and I think you will see a lot of campaigns smartly embracing that in the content they produce.”