Structures for :15, :30 and :60 Spots

Spots are sold by the second, and stations play them to the second. A :30 runs thirty seconds, never thirty-one, so the first tool you need is arithmetic.

The word budget

A natural conversational read runs about 2 to 2.5 words per second. Some voices are slower, some announcers go faster, and short words go by quicker than long ones. Use this as a planning number, then time the real read with a stopwatch.

Now subtract. Every second spent on something other than speech comes out of your word budget:

• Sponsor and disclaimer lines: a spoken "Paid for by the Committee for Harlow Library" is about 3 seconds. A federal candidate's approval statement is about 4. Lesson 6 has the rules.
• Sound effects and music stings: a door slam with a beat of silence after it is a full second.
• Pauses: a good read breathes. Give it two or three half-second pauses in a :30.
• The front and back: some stations want a short bit of silence or a clean start and end. More in lesson 7.

A political :30 with a 4 second disclaimer and two sound effects realistically holds 45 to 55 words of message. Write to that number. A 90 word first draft is really a :45 that someone will try to speed up, and sped-up voices sound frantic and cheap.

Four shapes that work

Most good ads use one of a small set of structures. You can invent your own, but learn these first. Each example below uses the invented Delmar County road bond or the Harlow library levy.

Problem, agitate, solve

Name the problem. Make the listener feel it. Offer the fix. This is the most common structure in local advertising because it maps onto how people actually decide things: something bugs me, it bugs me more when I think about it, here is a way out.

SFX: Car thumps through a pothole. Coffee cup rattles.

VOICE: Miller Road. You know the spot.
       Right past the grain elevator.
       Two bridges on Miller are rated poor.
       School buses cross them twice a day.
       Measure 4 rebuilds eleven miles of Miller Road
       and replaces both bridges.
       About four dollars a month on a typical home.
       Vote Tuesday, November third.

ANNCR: Paid for by Delmar Roads Yes.

Agitate honestly. If the bridge inspection report says "poor," you can say "rated poor" and cite the report. "Could collapse at any moment" is a scare line you probably cannot back up. The agitate step is where ads go from persuasive to false, so source every line in it.

Testimonial

A real person says why they care. It works because listeners trust a neighbor more than an announcer. It fails when the person sounds scripted, so write the script after you interview them, using their own words.

MARISOL: I'm a nurse. I work twelves, Monday through Thursday.
         By the time I'm off, the library's closed.
         My son asks every Saturday if we can go.
         Every Saturday I say it's closed.
         The levy opens it Saturdays again.
         Two dollars a month. I'll pay that.

ANNCR:   Harlow Library levy. Vote May nineteenth.
         Paid for by Friends of Harlow Library.

Contrast

Two choices side by side: this candidate versus that one, this plan versus doing nothing. Contrast is how most campaign ads work, and it is legitimate. Voters need to compare.

The rules for a contrast ad are strict, and you set them yourself before anyone else does. Every claim about the other side needs a source you could hand a reporter in five minutes: a vote record, a meeting minute, a public statement on video. Quote accurately and in context. Do not use ominous music and slow-motion grainy footage to imply something you cannot say in words. The audience notices, and the other side gets a free ad out of your mistake.

ANNCR: On water rates, two candidates for Ostrander City Council.
       Ray Tillman voted for the 2024 rate increase,
       and the 2025 rate increase.
       Jo Brandt has a plan to audit the water fund first.
       Before anyone pays more.
       Read both records at OstranderVotes.org.
       On November third, compare.

JO:    I'm Jo Brandt, and I approved this message.
ANNCR: Paid for by Brandt for Council.

Story

A character wants something, hits an obstacle, and the thing you are selling helps them through. Story is the most memorable structure and the hardest to fit. In a :30 you get maybe four sentences of story and a tag. A :60 lets the character breathe.

Matching shape to length

A :15 is almost always a reminder. Run it after the :30 has had a week or two on air, and it can echo the :30's single thought in half the words. "Saturdays at the library. Two dollars a month. Vote May nineteenth. Paid for by Friends of Harlow Library." That is 18 words, about 8 seconds, which leaves room for a sound effect and a breath.