I just ran across this new video of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, which was filmed last week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the video, Brownback stands outside the detention center that’s been in the news so much recently, discussing what he’d just witnessed during a tour of the facility.
The video was simple and cheap enough to produce, but it works on so many levels.
First, it gives Brownback a moral high ground in the contentious debate: unlike nearly all of Gitmo’s critics, he’s actually been there and can speak with an authority they’ll never have.
Second, he offers the same defense of the facility that nearly all of its defenders in Washington offer, but instead of doing it from a Congressional committee room or sterile network studio, he does it from the facility itself. which most people have never really seen, and that makes it more likely that viewers will actually listen to what he has to say. In essence, Brownback becomes a citizen reporter, much as we did in this video I produced at the proposed site of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska in 2006.
Finally, the video is something different, interesting and relevant that his staff can use to pitch his availability and expertise to national news producers. Not only does the video enhance Brownback’s expertise on the issue, it gives producers some unique b-roll to play during upcoming interviews.
Check it out below, and think about how on-location video can help you break out of the pack:
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