Ganim adopts high profile pandemic messaging
BRIDGEPORT — For a cash-strapped, high-taxed city, when it comes to coronavirus pandemic messaging, Bridgeport has a style that stands out.
“There’s nothing like what (Mayor Joe) Ganim’s doing,” Richard Hanley, an associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University, said in an interview. “It’s a whole different level. It’s well-produced . ... This is a leader trying to project ‘leadership qualities’ as opposed to simply being a person citing (virus) statistics day after day.”
Having already gone a step farther than other big city peers to film simple but polished advertising about the health crisis, Ganim more recently has a starring role in a more cinematic effort thanking front line workers.
The two newest videos, one nearly three minutes long, the other 30 seconds, were filmed during an April 16 parade of emergency vehicles past the hospitals. With soft piano accompaniment as background, they feature documentary-style footage of cheering medical professionals and first responders, mixed with closeups of the mayor, his speech to them the voice-over narration.
“It’s you, day in and day out, that are saving lives,” Ganim shouts through an intercom. “You are our heroes.”
He is standing on a fire department vehicle, gripping the microphone, the flash of emergency lights on his jacket.
“Amazing video quality,” said one viewer on Facebook, Arturo Aspinwall. “Definitely (a) professional job.”
And Trisha Ouellette wrote of Ganim, “You’re such a caring and compassionate person who really cares!!!”
While not political, Hanley noted “(it is) a sort of uplifting montage characteristic of a campaign ad. You could see how this could dissolve into ‘Ganim for Mayor’ at the end.”
The mayor’s re-election campaign ended last November. And, having run unsuccessfully for governor in 2018, Ganim has not announced any recent interest in again pursuing higher office.
“Just a nice way to continue to say ‘thank you’ with that video,” Ganim said Thursday during his daily live briefing on Facebook.
But Ganim’s emergency responder “thank you,” along with the handful of previous videos of him facing a camera in his office and praising front line workers or urging residents to fight the illness’ spread, are part of a paid cable television and radio marketing effort. While Ganim’s office ignored repeated requests about those advertising costs, staff claimed any related expenses would be included when Bridgeport eventually files a request for pandemic response reimbursement with the federal government.
The mayors from Hartford, New Haven, Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford, while using several methods to communicate with constituents, have not attempted Bridgeport’s level of sophistication.