#ADWARS: The campaign has begun.

To celebrate the official campaign launch, we bring you a digest of both side's ads thus far.

The campaign for the December 6th election will formally start today. I say formally because both political sides started pushing their messages on-line and on the air a long time ago. Not that the CNE cares much about that.

Now, let’s take a look to the latest from the MUD and the PSUV-GPP:

The opposition’s latest ads are all about location, location, location. Location on the ballot, that is.

You might have heard of MIN, the small political party hijacked by the Supreme Court, which has been turned into a huge electoral boobytrap, thanks to its placement right next to the MUD on the ballot, and the use of the word UNIDAD. Nicolas Maduro himself has publicly referred MIN-UNIDAD as “the opposition”, in what seems to be a deliberate attempt to confuse impressionable voters. It’s just one of the many electoral dirty tricks Luis Almagro and OAS have called bullshit on.

So, the MUD just released these new ads where they ask voters to “not be fooled” and identify the actual Unity card as the “one with the little hand”, in reference to its logo. They also push their placement on the ballot (bottom lefthand corner), through the power of repetition, just like HeadOn. They even take advantage of the hand symbol to spin a more positive attitude into its message.

Meanwhile, Chavismo keeps on focusing on the “brave people” part of its main campaign slogan. Better get ready for montages! Info-graphics! Poster-making! Smiling faces! Chicha!

I don’t know about you, but I found these commercials quite boring. I know that I’m not the target audience, but still the whole execution is either uninspired or just plain lazy. They really want to rally their more passionate base, but it feels more like they want to put them to sleep.

And to prove my point further, take a look to this piece apparently directed towards younger crowds:

UGH! The first thing that came to my mind is this. The second thing that came to my mind was… um, this isn’t working, fellas.

Get Joao Santana back ASAP. He’s actually available right now. Just stop doing these. Just stop.

Wait a minute, why I’m giving them advice? It’s not like they’re trailing badly in the polls…right?.