The new colloquiality

[Ron Burgundy]

Her first name is Joan. Her last name is a mystery.

â??We consider that a corporate secret,â?? said Fred Davis III, chairman of Strategic Perception, Inc., the Hollywood-based company that has been making John McCainâ??s ads.

Amidst the hubbub over the visuals in McCainâ??s viral Internet lampoonery, â??Celeb,â?? few viewers are likely to have paid much heed to the audioâ??and thatâ??s part of the idea.

â??One thing we like about this voice,â?? said Bill Kenyon, Strategic Perceptionâ??s political director, â??is it doesnâ??t have any real distinct tonality to it. Itâ??s pleasant to listen to. Itâ??s an every-womanâ??s voice.â??

As images of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Barack Obama cross-dissolve, Joan asks: â??Heâ??s the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?â??

And then: â??With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to off-shore drilling, and says heâ??ll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes. More foreign oil. Thatâ??s the real Obama.â??

That a woman would narrate such an ad was a foregone conclusion. It is a rule of thumb in the business, said Kathleen Hall Jameison, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, that â??frivolous content equals female voice.â??

Davis said that Joanâ??who can also be heard on three other McCain spots attacking Obama, â??Pumpâ??, "Painful" and "Family" appeared on the political voiceover scene about a year ago. Hence the secretiveness; he doesnâ??t want his competitors to hop on the wagon.

While political ad narration has long been the province of a small coterie of well-entrenched talents, the business is desperate for new voices that havenâ??t already grown too familiar to listeners, and that convey something different.

â??This election cycle they are asking me to sound less like an announcer and more like a real person,â?? said Jennifer Server, a well-established campaign ad voice. â??It often feels like there is sort of more colloquial language, like when I say things like, â??Is this really his plan?â?? Iâ??m supposed to be sort of incredulous. They describe it as â??non-announcery.â??â??

â??The sort of straight authoritarian announcer sometimes is still appropriate, but a lot of times it will be noise or wallpaper to people,â?? said Eric Adelstein, a Democratic media consultant and veteran of three presidential campaigns.

â??The voice of Godâ?? construct that once was supposed to command maximum credibility, is increasingly being eschewed for voices that would sound less absurd at the dinner table. The idea, says McCainâ??s former media consultant Mark McKinnon, is to find voices that donâ??t â??scream to the viewer, â??itâ??s an announcer.â??â??

In part because of this new colloquiality, women are expected to play an unprecedented role this cycle in the male-dominated world of political ad voiceovers. And veteran female voice-over performers who for years were instructed to resemble scolding mothers are now being directed to sound more like best friends.

Betsy Ames set the model for this back in 2000, with an ad for George Bush that took Al Gore to task for claiming a handmaidenâ??s stake in the birth of the Internet.

â??Yeah,â?? narrated Ames, â??and I invented the remote control, too. Another round of this and I'll sell my television.â??

This was a mold-breaker: Amesâ?? words dripped with sarcasm and even disdain, qualities never employed in the older, more elocutionary voiceovers of the past.

After nearly a quarter-century of voicing Republican TV ads, Ames says she hasnâ??t yet been called upon by the McCain campaign this cycle. She imagines she will hear from them at some point; there is just too much negativity to dispense for an old pro to remain on the bench.

â??I think my consultants would love to find somebody other than me,â?? she said, â??because I get into situations where maybe Iâ??m doing a governorâ??s race and a congressional race [in the same market]. Fortunately, quite a few of them have said, â??we tried but we canâ??t replace you yet.â??â??

Kathryn Klvana, the Democratâ??s go-to larynx since 1994, said she has even started to do ads for women candidates in congressional races, in spite of the long-held preference of female politicians for male announcers.

How much of a difference this all makes is up for debate. Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, points out that there is no systematic study on how voters respond to a narratorâ??s voice or gender.

â??It is something that matters at the margin,â?? he says, â??and is probably over-thought or over-claimed by political consultants.â??