Kerrey Campaign Airs First TV Ads : Politics: Commercials focus on national health insurance and fair trade. The issue-oriented spots were made without using focus groups or polls.

Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska aired the first television commercials of his presidential campaign on Friday. One promoted his national health insurance plan, the other demanded fair trade practices, particularly with Japan.

And Kerrey produced them the old-fashioned way--without using polls or focus groups to test his message.

In one of the two 30-second spots aimed at the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary, Kerrey stands in a hospital room and says: “I’m Bob Kerrey, and I’m the only candidate with a bill in Congress that creates national health insurance.

“The Kerrey bill establishes health care as a basic right, lowers the average family’s health bill by over $500 a year and guarantees health insurance even if you lose your job. In a country like ours, it’s time to make health care a fundamental right for all Americans.”

In fact, it is unclear whether his plan would reduce medical bills by $500 a year. For that to happen, Americans would have to accept longer waiting periods for elective surgery and serious restrictions on the use of costly new equipment and technology.

But it’s true that Kerrey was a pioneer in the Senate on health care. His plan, which is based on Canada’s system, is among the most drastic in calling for change. The proposal would be financed by payroll, excise and income taxes.

In the second ad, Kerrey stands in an empty hockey rink and says: “What’s happening in the world economy is like a hockey game, where others guard their goal to keep our product out--while we leave our net open.

“It’s cost us jobs and destroyed companies. We’re becoming a low-wage nation, and all George Bush does is go to Japan and beg for a few concessions. . . . If I’m President, the time for begging is through. I’ll tell Japan if we can’t sell in their market, they can’t sell in ours.”

In fact, Kerrey’s voting record on trade is not clearly protectionist. He supported the Bush Administration plan for “fast track” trade agreements with Mexico, which most labor unions and environmentalists opposed. And, although he supported a 1990 bill to limit shoe imports, he also voted to add exemptions. The bill passed, but Bush vetoed it.

The spontaneous nature of Kerrey’s ads reveals something about his candidacy. The lack of Madison Avenue testing--which has become common in politics--is a reflection both of Kerrey’s from-the-gut nature and of the disorganization in his campaign. In an age when most politicians scarcely move their lips without having a strong idea about how people will react, such spontaneity, however refreshing, could prove risky.

Kerrey did not settle on who would produce his media campaign until last weekend. He sat down with his team for the first time a week ago today in a Portsmouth, N.H., law office. He spent more than three hours talking about why he was running for President, what he stood for and what he might want to say in the ads.

The consulting team spent the next two days working out ideas. Kerrey himself rewrote portions of the ads. The spots were shot on Wednesday, edited on Thursday and in the hands of the stations on Friday.

By Friday night, Kerrey had made the evening news with them. NBC used an excerpt of the protectionist ad to point out that Democrats are making an issue of Bush’s trip to Japan.

Kerrey aides hope the ads demonstrate his basic positions on health care and economics, as well as his values and character. Critics have charged that the senator is running on personality alone.

“Kerrey felt strongly that he wanted to begin with issues that are the centerpiece of the campaign,” campaign manager Tad Devine said.

Kerrey aides acknowledged that they felt pressure to get on the air quickly because Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas are already running ads.

Aides for Clinton, with whom Kerrey has been sparring recently, were quick to attack. “They just keep trying something new every day to see how to engage Clinton,” said Mitchell Schwartz, Clinton’s campaign director in New Hampshire. “That’s their game.”

Larry Agran, the former Irvine mayor who is also running for the Democratic nomination, has a television spot, too. It opens with Agran introducing himself and saying, “The Cold War is over.” He promises that, if elected, he will slash the defense budget by 50% and distribute the proceeds to the American people. Every family, he says, would receive a check for $1,850. The image switches to an invisible hand writing a check.