New Audience Sees Different Face in Edwards Commercial

[Freddie Stubbs]

By JIM RUTENBERG

Published: March 2, 2004


Senator John Edwards, who often talks about "two Americas" separated by class, has two television commercials separated by race.

A spot his campaign is running in Ohio about job losses would be identical to one it ran in South Carolina last month if not for one thing: In the Ohio advertisement as Mr. Edwards says "Today, the mills are gone, and so are the jobs," the screen features a photograph of a white factory worker.

The version that ran in South Carolina in early February showed a black factory worker.

Ohio and South Carolina have different demographic profiles. Ohio is 85 percent white and 11.5 percent black, according to the United States Census Bureau. South Carolina is 67 percent white and 29 percent black, and African-Americans approached 50 percent of the Democratic primary electorate.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/politics/campaign/02ADS.html