As an image of a towheaded girl wearing a yellow T-shirt and dribbling a soccer ball flashes on the television screen, a narrator states that Maryland's schoolchildren deserve a better future - and that Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is the gubernatorial candidate who will guarantee it for them.
The advertisement, paid for by the Republican's campaign for governor, is aimed squarely at suburbanite mothers and owes much of its power to subtle effects: The girl in the commercial is wearing a yellow soccer jersey familiar to anyone who has stood on the sidelines cheering for a child in a Montgomery County recreation league.
With its attention to detail and slick packaging, the television spot typifies the work of its creator, the Stevens & Schriefer Group. The Washington-based consulting firm has mapped out Ehrlich's advertising strategy in his cheek-to-jowl race against Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Democratic lieutenant governor.
Since 1994, Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer have worked to burnish Ehrlich's image as a different kind of Republican - an empathetic leader who has shared the challenges of working-class voters. Targeting mothers over 35, middle-class African-Americans and commuters irked by traffic, Ehrlich's commercials underscore his promise: He can address their concerns.
"The biggest asset we have in this campaign is Bob Ehrlich," says Schriefer. "Bob comes across as sincere and a strong leader."
His newest ads alternate between attacks on the stewardship of Townsend's political partner, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, and unscripted testimonials by carefully selected advocates, such as an award-winning teacher and a prominent African-American lawyer from Baltimore.
"Voters are very sophisticated consumers of all these little signs and codes," Stevens says. "People may not read all that much, but they really know how to look."
The media consulting firm is a marriage of Hollywood glitz and Washington grind.
Stevens, a writer for several critically lauded network television shows (including NBC's I'll Fly Away) and author of more than a half-dozen books, divides his time between New York, California and Vermont.
By contrast, Schriefer fled to politics after an internship at a law firm. He worked on local Republican races and progressed through the ranks at various political jobs around New York and Capitol Hill.
