Someone tell Bill de Blasio he won the election.
The mayor’s taxpayer-funded p.r. machine has spit out 250 YouTube videos since he took office — including some slickly produced messages that look a lot like campaign ads.
Complete with voice-overs, soaring music and interviews with New Yorkers waxing poetic about Hizzoner, the videos are created by former de Blasio campaign workers now employed by City Hall.
“I feel like Bill de Blasio and [wife] Chirlane [McCray] have brought the love back to New York City,” an unnamed woman gushes in one video while waiting to tour Gracie Mansion three days after his inauguration.
Another video celebrates his first 100 days in office with staged testimonials from New Yorkers, including one by a carwash employee applauding the mayor’s signing a paid-sick-leave law.
“For that, we thank Bill de Blasio,” the worker says.
In a February video, Katherine La Guardia, granddaughter of legendary New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, says de Blasio has the “same progressive vision” as the New Deal-era pol.
“Like my grandfather, Mayor de Blasio is a mayor for all new Yorkers,” she says.
That video seems like an “endorsement” of a candidate instead of an already-elected mayor, says Robert Y. Shapiro, a Columbia University professor of American politics.
“If it occurred during an election campaign, it would look like a campaign ad,” Shapiro said.
Incumbent politicians enjoy the advantage of using taxpayer resources to brag about their work, said Shapiro, who calls it “credit claiming.”
The NYC Mayor’s Office YouTube channel is only one part of de Blasio’s self-promotion. Last Sunday, The Post revealed how staffers at the city’s taxpayer-funded NYC TV channel were told to feature a mayor’s friend among stories that promote his agenda.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched the Mayor’s Office YouTube channel in 2009, starting the practice of videotaping his press conferences and bill-signing ceremonies. But de Blasio takes it further.
“The mayor is well within his rights to promote his accomplishments in new ways,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the government-watchdog group Citizens Union, “but he should exercise caution in making it too self-promotional and canned.”
The Mayor’s Office refused to discuss the cost of filming and editing the sophisticated videos, or how many staffers work on them. It said the money comes from NYC Media, the city’s official broadcast arm with $5.7 million, and another city office, NYC Digital.
Producer Aaron Cahan, who created the de Blasio campaign TV ad “Our City,” is now a city employee who makes the mayor’s videos.
His recent work includes “One Family’s Story,” which declares de Blasio a success in overhauling the city’s Build it Back Program to restore homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.
Cahan also produced “Every Single Child,” a promotion of Hizzoner’s pet initiative, universal pre-K, posted online Oct. 2.
“He’s not just a talker. He takes action,” a pre-K mom says of de Blasio on tape in that promotion — which raised eyebrows after it was blasted out in an e-mail from a City Hall address to a list of de Blasio’s campaign supporters.
But De Blasio can get away with the self-promotional fodder because he’s not in the middle of a re-election, experts say.
“If he was entering a mayoral campaign it would raise all kinds of red flags,” Columbia’s Shapiro said.
“The mayor’s opponents would be screaming bloody murder.”
A mayoral spokeswoman would not explain where the office draws the line between information and self-serving publicity.
“Just as all elected officials work to communicate with their constituents, this administration is committed to using digital tools, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to engage New Yorkers,” she said.
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