7.20.2020 – PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Chapin Fay
chapin@lighthousepublic.com
(646) 504-1776
Unveils 1st Digital and TV Advertisements, New Website and Logo, Initial $250,000 Ad Buy
BRONX, NY… Former New York City Police Officer and current Bronx high school civics teacher John Cummings today officially launched his general election campaign against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th Congressional District with a $250,000 initial ad buy, as well as a new website and logo.
Cummings also unveiled the first advertisements of the 2020 campaign with a pair of ads, “I AM YOU DIGITAL,” a 3 minute, 30 second biographical video that will run digitally throughout the district and “I AM YOU TV,” a 60 second advertisement that will run on cable TV, including CNBC, Fox Business and Bronx News 12.
“This is just the beginning of a sustained advertising campaign that will define John Cummings as the moderate, common-sense, pro-police alternative to a dangerously out-of-touch radical socialist,” said Senior Advisor Chapin Fay. “At the same time we are introducing John and his 30 year record of service through this media buy, AOC is calling for the abolition of the police department despite a huge spike in violent crime, including the killing of a one year old baby. The gap between what elected representatives are saying and the reality for people on the ground has never been wider, or more dangerous. Having raised $4 million already so far, John will have the resources to make sure everyone in the 14th Congressional District knows there is a moderate, common-sense alternative to AOC’s radical socialism.”
You can watch “I AM YOU DIGITAL,” here and “I AM YOU TV” here. Both ad scripts are below.
I AM YOU DIGITAL (3 minutes, 30 seconds)
VO John: “I grew up in the Parkchester section of the Bronx which is a part of the District, 14, that I am running to represent.
I live in the district. I work in the district. I bank in the district. I know where the good pizza is. (It’s Luciano’s in Morris Park).
I have a 30 year record of service. 8 and a half years as a New York City Police Officer and the last 22 years as a history teacher.
🎶…Teaching is a passion. It’s my heart and it’s fun… 🎶
John: The students that I teach, 40% of them live in the poorest Congressional District in the United States.
🎶…But it’s my time to serve… Mr. Cummings you should run… 🎶
John: Yet we graduate 99% of our students with a full regents diploma in 4 years and we’re very proud of that. I just hope that I can help the young men in the same way that I was helped.
William (former student of John’s): The best part about having Mr. Cummings as a teacher is that he just had that voice that he got through to you all the time.
🎶…to the working class… 🎶
John: New York City is the envy of every large city, even small city, in the country.
People want safe streets. They want good schools. They want their voices heard.
I mean, after all, that’s what the House of Representatives is all about.
And while my opponent has done a great job building a national persona for herself, I don’t think she’s interested in helping the working class.
She tried to make it sound like she was “Jenny from the block.” I don’t think she could find the block.
I really think that misrepresenting who you are is really unfair to the people that you serve.
I think she’s really left the district behind. The Amazon project that she was very firmly against, that could have brought 25,000 jobs to the area.
This idea of defunding the police.
The district is heavily democrat but it’s not heavily socialist. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist.
Music is a huge part of my life and I have to really credit my late mother Natalie. She was a great singer in her own right. She used to sing Besame Mucho, that was her big song. And to this day I still can’t sing it because I get too choked up to get through it.
I am the cantor at mass, which means I’m the lead singer when we have mass. I started the rock and roll stuff at 15. Started playing in bars and gin mills till 3:30 in the morning at age 15.
🎶…In 14D the roots run deep… Corona and Woodside to Steinway Street… 🎶
John: and I start playing the spoons, which I had been playing since I’m 8 years old.
🎶…I am you…🎶
John: One of the guys that was there, a friend of mine who’s a bass player, called me Johnny Spoons and I’ve been Johnny Spoons ever since.
🎶…And then one day they told me, Mr. Cummings, you should run…
I am you…
Lord, I am you… Cause I live where you live and I work where you work… I shop where you shop and I hurt when you hurt…. I am you…🎶
Closing Credits: ORIGINAL SONG I AM YOU WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JOHN CUMMINGS + GREG CROWE COMING SOON
REMOVING AOC COMING NOVEMBER 3RD
🎶Lord, I am you… I am you… yeah, I am you…🎶”
I AM YOU TV (60s) VO John: “I grew up in the Parkchester section of the Bronx which is a part of the District, 14, that I am running to represent.
I live in the district. I work in the district. I bank in the district. I know where the good pizza is.
I have a 30 year record of service. 8 and a half years as a New York City Police Officer and the last 22 years as a history teacher.
The students that I teach, 40% of them live in the poorest Congressional District in the United States.
The district is heavily democrat but it’s not heavily socialist.
While my opponent has done a great job building a national persona for herself, I think she’s really left the district behind. I don’t think she’s interested in helping the working class.
She tried to make it sound like she was “Jenny from the block.” I don’t think she could find the block.
I really think that misrepresenting who you are is really unfair to the people that you serve.
People want safe streets. They want good schools. They want their voices heard.
I mean, after all, that’s what the House of Representatives is all about.
I’m John Cummings and I approved this message.”
Learn more about John at cummings2020.com
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