Just before the 2016 election, a young producer from NBC News had been googling around the inter webs and found an NPR interview about voice actors who get hired to narrate those “spooky” attack ads. Not sure why, but NPR reached out to me and Scott Sanders in 2006. Scott had been known in political circles for years as the “King of the Attack Ad,” and I had done my share, but not nearly as many, or with as many high profile candidates as had Scott. Maybe it was because we are both in Philadelphia, and a sizable amount of campaigns are recorded here. For whatever reason, we were both interviewed in 2006 and again in 2008 for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” by Melissa Block. Here’s how it sounded (right).
Esquire Magazine heard it, and interviewed us for their website as well.
Flash-forward 10 years, to the young NBC producer, who called me and asked for an on-camera interview along with Scott. Only problem was, Scott had by now retired. Lucky for them, Grace Gonglewski, also from Philadelphia, had become one of the top female voice actors in the political space, and was the voice of an independent PAC that was running ads for Hillary Clinton nationwide.
So just a few weeks before election day, we sat for an on-camera interview at Baker Sound in Center City Philadelphia. About 10 seconds of the interview actually made it into the final piece, which ran on “The Today Show Sunday,” hosted by Willie Geist. But Hallie Jackson called me a “Master of the Dark Arts,” so that’s something, I guess.
