Political Ads Are Decadent and Depraved

Obama Smear



Description

Once every two to four years American citizens are incessantly bombarded with political ads for candidates seeking election to various political offices. No other type of political ad has become more pervasive than that of the smear campaign, especially when it comes to the Presidency.

For example, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has a smear ad attacking the McCain campaign. The ad starts with a video from a McCain rally where he said, “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.” When the four second video clip ends, a omnisciently serious deep voice comes through the speakers asking “What’s happened to John McCain?”. A photo appears at the bottom right of the senator. His head is facing down and his eyes are closed with a slight frown upon his face. As the omniscient voice tells us about McCain’s dirty ad tactics, quotes from the New Yourk Times, CBS News, Chicago Tribune, etc, flash on the screen. The dates of the articles are provided just below the quotes. Words like “sleaziest”, “vile”, “dishonest”, “liar”, “truth be damned” and “deception” are used to describe McCains political ads. This ad goes on to mention McCain agrees with President Bush 90% of the time and that if McCain is elected, he’ll be representing “the same disastrous politics”.

McCain Smear



On the other side of the coin, John McCain has produced a political smear masterpiece. Artfully done using special computer graphics making all the images look 2D, the ad starts with an image of Obama at the podium giving his acceptance speech at the DNC. As Obama fades in the distance, his is surrounded by all his supporters. A woman's voice can be heard saying, “take away the celebrity, the thrilling words”, then an explosion sound occurs leaving only Obama under a spotlight in the distance, “What's left?” the narrator inquires. Suspenseful violin music can be heard as if it is a chase scene in a thriller movie. She uses words like “old ideas”, “disguised change”, as images of democratic leaders appear and fade before the backdrop of the White House. Those images are less then gentle, more like “liberal” beasts. The ad continues, mentioning “promised higher taxes” by the Obama campaign on such things as “your income, savings, electric bill”. Corresponding images flash. That technique is repeated when saying Obama “opposes off shore drilling”. The ad is conclude with “Obama and his liberal allies are not ready to lead”. To my surprise, they show a smiling photo of Obama next to the words, “not ready to lead”. But wait, there is more, the music changes to a heavenly piano as a flash of white light starts from the top right of the screen and fades to an image of a proud white haired high chinned man John McCain. “He approves this message”.

Analysis

Smear campaign ads usually follow patterns of trying to make ones opponent look like a un-American baffoon. This is represented by showing video or still images of the opponent looking less glorious than the party that is producing the ad. Strong suggestive language is used, sometimes with the words appearing on the screen next to the opponents image. These ads also tend to take quotes from various news outlets regarding their opponent and place them in the ad to support the message they are presenting to the consumer. Most of the dates are provided near the quote so a viewer can check this information. That is if you can copy it down fast enough since they only appear for about a second.

With the use of suspenseful music and deep movie theater trailer voices, I would not be surprised to see smear campaign ads be taken to a higher level in the years to come. For example, have one campaign pay a television network to have their campaign ads be product placement in hit shows like CSI. Here is a story line: McCain campaign works with the detectives in trying to solve a murder. As the investigation goes on we learn about the perks of an McCain presidency, while the smear ads appear against the Obama campaign because someone close to him was involved in mutilating a 47 year republican senator somewhere in an abandoned parking lot. The motive being that this person was going to expose Obama for wanting to raise taxes on your “income, savings and electric bill”. This technique would revolutionize the way political ads are produced while gaining new patterns in delivering political messages.

What I think is most interesting, even comical, about smear campaigns is that they are all the same. Every candidate is going to raise your taxes. Every candidate does not have you or your family in their best interest. Every candidate fights smear ads with smear ads. Then more smear ads follow. It is a vicious cycle. They all follow the same pattern of making the other appear to be less than what they are by using quotes, which could be taken out of context, from various news sources and spin them to fit their need to steal your attention and your vote. This type of ad campaign is dumbing down democracy and, sadly, is becoming more dominant than positive ads where the candidates actually try to attract voters by informing them on what they, the candidates, stand for, or how they can help society with current issues at hand.