I've noticed a strange trend in McCain's recent web ads. Basically, he is expecting people to actually be paying attention to what the ads say...a HUGE mistake.
Take this new ad. It chastises Obama for being "the world's biggest celebrity" (over the photos of Britney and Paris Hilton...um, that's so 2005, Johnny. Where's the LaBeouf?).
But the problem with the ad (which you'll also see in this widely discredited McCain video) is that the visuals and much of the audio are incredibly complimentary to Obama. If you didn't have the volume up or aren't paying close attention, you'd assume they were actually Obama ads.
Here is Obama smiling.
Here is Obama staring gallantly to the horizon.
Here is a massive crowd chanting Obama's name.
Here is Obama playing basketball with the troops.
Here is an adoring crowd gazing up at Obama.
Here is Obama smiling again! So dreamy.
Yes, Obama's celebrity status and good looks do piss some conservatives off....but most regular people just chock it up to him being, um, famous and good-looking.
Since these ads are mostly aimed at the political press -- who actually will listen and read closely -- the downside might not be that bad. But if they continue to produce these kind of pieces for TV up through the election, they'll just be amplifying Obama's message. So, please, continue.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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2 comments:
God that Paris/Britney ad is awful. Perhaps McCain has no choice but to go negative now and indeed for the rest of the campaign, but they seem to be so inept at doing so.
I think Obama's people need to start developing and heavily pushing a line about how McCain seems only interested in attacking Obama and how he does so in an unbelievably petty fashion. Put something in the stump speech that contrasts McCain's recent attacks against Obama with Obama's substantive ideas for change ("McCain uses falsehoods and injured American troops in Germany as a political attack, I offer better benefits for veterans and a way out of the Iraq war; McCain complains about the fact that I am well known and ridiculously compares our campaign to Paris Hilton, while our campaign talks about providing health care to all Americans;, etc. etc.").
Obama's people should not simply rebut McCain's silly ads, they should turn them into a whole storyline that paints McCain as a petty attack dog who is not talking about what matters to Americans and has left behind his call for a new kind of politics in a desperate effort to get elected. I think Americans have very little tolerance for negative ads this election season, and Obama needs to take McCain strongly to task for that while highlighting his proposals at the same time.
The Obama people are trying to create that counter-narrative, but it's hard because it basically is calling out the press for their complicity in perpetuating the stories.
I do think McCain's negativity is starting to sink as a story line, though. McCain is going more negative more quickly than I would have thought. The "My opponent would rather lose a war than lose an election" line was among the most crass and dishonorable things I've ever heard.
After that line, Obama's camp released a statement saying something to the effect of "John McCain is an honorable man running an increasingly dishonorable campaign." I think that is a great formulation...it is by definition not a personal attack, yet it hits the same spot as actually calling McCain himself dishonorable. That's a good balance.
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