TV Commercials Could Prove Crucial to Iraqi Candidates

Mohammad Jassim Labban appears on the TV screen, frozen against a flat blue and white backdrop.

Eyes moving over an unseen script, he reads in an earnest monotone, promising to improve education, healthcare and retiree benefits as the candidate of the left-wing Coalition of the United People.

“My dear fellow citizens,” he says in conclusion, “your vote will increase our potential to realize these objectives for a better life for the present and future of our beloved boys and girls.”

Far from Madison Avenue -- in more ways than one -- television commercials are emerging as a crucial element in Iraq’s landmark Jan. 30 election.

The first partisan spots ran last week, produced and aired for free on U.S.-backed Al Iraqiya, the sole channel based in Iraq that broadcasts nationwide.

Bolder still, the Iraqi List, the election slate headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, is buying prime-time spots on satellite and local channels.

In a nation unused to competitive elections, some Iraqis are suggesting that such tactics could backfire, appearing elitist or insincere.

But Adnan Janabi, a minister of State for the interim government and campaign chairman for the Iraqi List, said there was no other way to rise above the multitude of choices and reach voters in a country where insurgent attacks have made grass-roots campaigning dangerous.

“We have no inhibitions about being too rich, being too slick, being too Western, being too sophisticated,” Janabi said. “What interests us is reaching 14 million people” -- the registered voters of Iraq.

When Iraqis head to the polls, they will face a daunting ballot listing more than 230 candidate slates vying for portions of the 275-seat transitional national assembly, which will draft the nation’s constitution.

Information is gleaned mostly on the streets, in mosques and from television.

Here, the power of television far outstrips that of radio -- plentiful, but hyper-local -- and newspapers, which proliferated after the fall of Saddam Hussein but still have a circulation of 300,000 in a nation of 25 million.

Iraq has more than 20 licensed local TV stations. A survey showed that as much as 65% of the population had once-banned satellite dishes through which they got popular international channels such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and a new favorite, Al Sharqiya.

“You just have to look across the roofs of Baghdad,” said Simon Haselock, who heads the Media Advisory Development Team, an international group that advises Iraq’s version of the Federal Communications Commission.

Under the code written by Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission, Al Iraqiya cannot accept paid political ads and must adhere to strict standards giving slates equal time.

Some officials argued that other stations should have to follow suit, concerned that parties with money would have an unfair edge or that local stations funded by religious and political groups would take a biased approach. But the commission decided that banning paid ads would hem in political speech in a campaign already disrupted by violence.

The Iraqi List appears to have the most advanced plan for using television.

As interim prime minister, Allawi gets plenty of coverage, particularly on Al Iraqiya. His slate would buy time mainly on Al Sharqiya, Janabi said, and to a lesser extent on Al Arabiya and specific local channels.

Spots featuring Allawi and other Iraqi List notables will be shown in increasing frequency until Jan. 28, the last day advertising is allowed.

Viewers should not expect American-style attack ads.

“We are not going to mudsling,” Janabi said.

He would not say how much the slate was spending on TV spots. “It’s not that expensive,” he said, demurring when asked for specifics. “Time is very cheap here.”

Some slates say they will not go ad-to-ad with Allawi’s group because they think it would hurt, not help, their credibility. The United Iraqi Alliance, the leading Shiite slate, won’t advertise on satellite channels, for example.

“We came to the decision that it would be better to be modest,” said Sheik Humam Hamoodi, a candidate.

The party seeks to represent Shiite Muslims who were oppressed under the Hussein regime, he noted. Eschewing a splashy ad campaign, he said, “would make ordinary Iraqis identify more closely with us, which is in our interests.”

TV channels, wading into new territory, also appear wary of seeming to profit from the election.

Alla Dahan, general director of the Dubai-based Al Sharqiya, acknowledged that he was negotiating with at least one party to run paid ads but grew testy when asked which party and how much the air time would cost. He emphasized that Al Sharqiya was also showing public service ads, sometimes 30 times a day, urging people to vote.

“This is all free,” he said. “We didn’t take any money.”

Al Iraqiya started airing blocks of free candidate commercials Jan. 1.

The initial ads promoted two independent candidacies and four slates, among them the Democratic Gathering of Two Rivers and the Democratic Society Movement, headed by former Governing Council spokesman Hamid Kifae.

Shot in Al Iraqiya’s studio, the spots all look and feel much like Labban’s. The channel defended its approach as fair, if bland.

“Everybody gets his own time and it’s based on equality,” said Fadel Jalal, the network’s deputy director. “We don’t want to stick to one side and ignore the other.”

Media experts doubted the exercise would have much viewer appeal.

“I think they have to do it, but it will be like watching paint dry and will add little to the political debate,” Haselock said.

Sharif Ali bin Hussein, leader of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, said he would tape a free spot for Al Iraqiya but could not afford to buy TV time and thought doing so might be premature.

“We need to catch the moment when the voter is making his decision, which is not yet,” he said. “It will be quite late, I would guess. It will be in the last 10 days.” For now, he is focusing on campaign appearances, posters and text-messaging potential supporters on their cellphones.

“Everyone,” he said, “has a cellphone.”

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Times staff writer Edmund Sanders contributed to this report.