This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The campaign of Jonathan Johnson, Gov. Gary Herbert's Republican rival for the gubernatorial nomination, posted a video ad Feb. 19 on Facebook and YouTube explaining how the caucus-convention system works in Utah using a clever "how to" scenario to illustrate the process.
With a catchy background tune, the video shows a hand that pencils sketches of stick-figure residents, then houses that represent caucus locations that supporters can attend to be a elected a delegate, followed by more stick figures showing neighbors voting for the delegate, who then attends the convention and votes for Johnson.
The video was texted to supporters Feb. 20. By Feb. 21, it was viewed by 11,000-plus people on Facebook and more than 100 on YouTube. On Feb. 24, the video was emailed to thousands of potential caucus attendees.
On Feb. 21, two days after the Johnson video went up, the Herbert campaign posted on YouTube virtually the same video, with what appeared to be the same hand drawing the same stick figures to the same background music with virtually the same narrative — except it showed how to become a Herbert delegate.
On Feb. 25, the Herbert video was emailed to thousands of Utahns.
Campaign Manager Marty Carpenter said he doesn't know why the two ads are so similar. He said the Herbert team began ad production Feb. 3 and had the spot in the can for about a week before it went out. He said it is a common format for those kinds of ads.
The background music, he added, is from a list of royalty-free options that both campaigns apparently chose.
Sasha Clark, of the Johnson campaign, said her team's delegate information page, a similar format to the ad, has been up since January, and the concept was devised in November. She finds if funny that the ads were almost identical and notes "we had ours up first."
As for the music, Clark said, thousands of options are available.
What a coincidence.
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Now you see it, now you don't • Every year, the Utah Jazz book a halftime entertainment duo called Quick Change, which stages a dazzling performance that would make any magician envious.
The two parade around the floor, with the woman in an elegant outfit before the man throws a colorful sheet over her, hiding her from the audience's view for a couple of seconds. When he removes the sheet, she is in a different outfit. He does it again and again and each time, the change of clothes gets more stunning.
The performance is popular across the NBA.
The same type of trick seems to have made it to the advertising sections of The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.
Both papers, on Page B8, ran an ad Friday for Saltz Spa Vitória that promises to "Freeze fat in half the time." In The Tribune, the woman pictured, sans love handles, has a bare midriff.
In the Deseret News version, she sports a one-piece swimsuit, protecting that paper's readers from viewing a navel.
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The big-tent theory • Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is one of the most prolific emailers in this year's campaign. I am on his mailing list, for some reason, and I get a plea for donations from him at least once a day. He addresses it to "Paul" and the note's personal nature would make one believe we are lifelong buddies.
But one recipient of this type of letter is worth noting, given Cruz's criticism that some of his Republican rivals have palled around with Democrats.
Patrice Arent is not only a Democratic legislator in the Utah House, she also is the Democratic national committeewoman from the state.
She also receives constant pleas for money from Cruz, with the reminder that she has always been there for him and he needs her now more than ever.
Maybe they can get together for coffee when Cruz comes to Utah later this month for the presidential debate. Or maybe Donald Trump can use it as one of his laugh lines.