CAMPAIGN ’88 : Homestretch TV Spots

Movie producer Tony Bill saw something he liked last week when Dukakis spoke in Los Angeles.

Dukakis looked businesslike and passionate addressing a big rally at the Scottish Rite Temple, but, as they say in the movie and TV business, if the cameras aren’t rolling it didn’t happen. Fortunately for Dukakis, Bill happened to have his cameras on, and snippets from the speech will show up, starting today, in ads airing only in California.

As the crowd cheers, Dukakis says: “I want an America in charge of its own future, in control of its own destiny, not a country that is selling off its land and its assets, piece by piece, to foreign interests.”

He concludes: “We’re going to have clean air and clean water and clean coasts--and (long pause) a clean government in Washington, D. C.”

Two other California-only TV ads for Dukakis also go on the air today. One of them urges voters to “wipe away the mud” from the presidential contest and take a look at Bush’s stated intention to reduce the capital gains tax.

“If you make more than $200,000 a year, you get a tax gift of $30,000 a year,” the narrator says, referring to the break on capital gains. “That’s more than the average Californian makes in a year.”

Dukakis’ California campaign manager, Tony Podesta, made that commercial himself. He would not disclose how much the campaign is spending to broadcast the new spots, but said simply: “A lot.”

For its part, the Bush campaign in California recently purchased a lot of air time in the San Francisco Bay Area for ads that continue to hammer away at the Massachusetts governor over pollution in Boston Harbor.