Praise for a flawed product:Greg Sargent at
The Horse's Mouth and Kevin Drum of
Political Animal are right to be pleased with the
Washington Post article,
The Year of Playing Dirtier, which correctly reports that Republicans are much more guilty of creating misleading and repulsive political ads than the Democrats. From the article:
The result has been a carnival of ugly, especially on the GOP side, where operatives are trying to counter what polls show is a hostile political environment by casting opponents as fatally flawed characters. The National Republican Campaign Committee is spending more than 90 percent of its advertising budget on negative ads, according to GOP operatives, and the rest of the party seems to be following suit.
But if you read the
Post article closely, you will find the following statement:
The RNC has raised eyebrows with an ad consisting almost entirely of al-Qaeda videos starring Osama bin Laden and his top deputies. There is no sound except the ticking of a bomb before the final warning: "These are the stakes. Vote November 7th."
"There is no sound except the ticking of a bomb before the final warning ..." is false. (Check out the YouTube
here.)
The ad is 60 seconds long. For the first 45 seconds, you hear the ticking of a clock. Then it stops, followed by 6 heartbeats during the last 15 seconds. Those heartbeats are there for a reason: to connect at a most primal level with the viewer.
To enhance the fear.
But Michael Grunwald of the
Post apparently couldn't take the time to watch a 60 second ad in order to correctly report its contents.
posted by Quiddity at 10/27/2006 05:48:00 PM
Fear is a big one for Republicans.
But I've noticed another theme: nasty sex.
One ad basically uses an NIH funding vote (I believe) to enable the Republicans to beam the words "Vietnamese prostitutes" and "masturbation" into homes -- homes with children!
Allen is talking about steamy sex in Webb's fiction. Corker's ads rely heavily on sex. I've seen a couple other ads that seem to have very little reason for existing other than to mention a Democratic candidate's name and then mention some sexual terms or show sexual images.
Fear and nasty sex: Republicans really do go for the limbic system.
I'm sure they know exactly wht they're doing, but it's odd they are piping vietnamese prostition and masturbation onto the dinner table of good Christian families.
Oh, I recalled another one I was thinking of. The ad in NY that says a candidate called a sex talk line. In actuality the call was under a minute and was in error-- the number was 1 digit off from non-sexy office that was called immediately after. The ad is done in the style of TV ads for 800 sex lines with lurid colors, an undulating woman, and porny music.
No reason to do it other than smear sex-juice all over a Dem.
