Tim Pawlenty has a new ad up in Iowa. I have started hesitating writing posts like this because inevitably the other campaigns decide I’m with the guy I’m writing about. Right now, I’m being inundating with angry emails from Herman Cain supporters accusing me of being against him. Others are attacking me for being too pro-Bachmann. So I guess it is time to go full circle and get back to the “you’re a sucker for Pawlenty” emails, which I’ll no doubt keep getting until I start writing about Rick Perry.

In any event, there’s a point to this. There are not a lot of ads up yet. Romney has had a few. They are very well done ads, but they are particular issues going after Obama. They’ve been great. What we have not really started seeing yet though are the overall thematic ads we’ll see throughout a campaign.

What I mean by that is when candidates start producing ads, they pick a type of ad, a type of background, a type of music, etc. And they keep it up through campaign season so you recognize the ad pretty quickly and connect it, hopefully positively, to the candidate.

Pawlenty gave us a preview of what he’d be going for with his intro video “A Time For Truth.”

The ad uses piano music, Pawlenty off centered typically to the left when speaking and the right otherwise but both in black and white, lots of white backgrounds, etc. It’s well done and fresh looking. Compared to Newt’s intro video or Romney’s, it has a more professional veneer to it and a more positive, upbeat feel.

He’s taken that thematic feel and put it into a new ad campaign. I like it. I think it sets the benchmark for the other candidates and I hope they’ll bring their A game to matching what his team has put together.

Here’s Sean Hannity and Karl Rove discussing the new ad that keeps the intro video’s look and feel: