New Haven’s firefighters have your number — and video to prove it.
In one video scene, a firefighter has two cookies in hand. He’s happy to give one to Uncle Sam, who “takes care of our roads and our great military.” He then invests half a cookie with a Wall Street broker — and is dismayed to see him gobble it up with a grin.
That scene plays out in a new TV spot that will soon air locally on Fox. It’s one of three spots put together by New Haven Firefighters Local 825 union.
Union President James Kottage and Frank Ricci, union secretary and screenwriter, said the ads are intended to inform the public about the hard work that firefighters do. The cookie ad, the longest of the three, also puts out the message that it’s Wall Street, not public employees who are to blame for government budget woes. Click the play arrow to watch it.
“Part of the message is we didn’t cause this financial mess,” Kottage said. It was big banks that caused it, he said.
Kottage said the ad is a response to anti-public-employee sentiment like that recently seen in Wisconsin. It’s the first time the union has ventured into video, he said.
“The general public doesn’t realize that we don’t get Social Security and that we pay into our pensions,” Ricci said.
He said he designed the cookie ad, which stars his son as a firefighter. The other roles are played by children in Washington D.C., where Ricci said he’s spent a lot of time.
The ad opens with a TV newscaster announcing that while “another corporate giant doesn’t have to pay taxes,” there are “more calls to cut firefighter pensions.”
A girl in colonial dress with a Michele Bachmann pin, a Tea Partier, serves cookies — money — and complains that Uncle Sam “always wants more.” She gives Sam a cookie, but gripes about it, while the firefighter does so happily.
A “broker,” representing Wall Street, refuses to give Sam any of his cookies, even though he has stacks of them.
Uncle Sam assures the broker he’ll take care of him, even without a cookie donation.
The firefighter gives the broker a half a cookie — a contribution to his pension — to keep safe for when he needs it later. But the broker just gobbles it down, then warns the Tea Partier that the firefighter is after her cookie.
Then the adults show up. Cut to Kottage and Ricci, who tell the viewer not to be fooled by “finger pointing.” Pensions are a “deferred payment on wages earned from hard work and dedication to the community,” Kottage said.
Another ad includes a testimonial from a manager of a local business about how firefighters saved his company, and from a man who was treated by firefighters for a heart attack. Click the play arrow to watch.
The third spot features firefighters in action, as Kottage and Ricci talk about all they do, and ask for support. Click the play arrow to watch.
It’s unclear what form that support might take. Kottage and Ricci said they are looking only to raise awareness. They said the ads are not related to upcoming negotiations on a new municipal contract.
“We just wanted to put out a positive message,” Ricci said.
Ricci and Kottage declined to say how much the union spent making the ads.
Click here to read William Kaempffer’s Register story about Tea Party support for the firefighter effort.