Saturday, March 08, 2008

Hello all! I am thrilled because this is election year. I have been watching the debates, debating others about which candidates rock, and watching political adds. The now infamous Clinton 3am add was particularly interesting to me. I know we have always talked about how people use images to convey strong feelings and emotions -- but here was a perfect example of a politician using this technique! Also, this is no indite on the ability of Clinton to lead the U.S. (almost every politician has done this -- remember Huckabee's Christmas add?) Here's the URL for the Clinton add if you have not seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M70emIFxETs
I wondered what you all think about this political tactic...

5 comments:

Annie said...

Oh my goodness...that was very much propaganda that seems right out of the 50's (mental hygiene!)
Wow, did anyone notice that it got a 1 star rating after 3265 votes?...wow. People are not responding in a positive way to this ad.

Also, would Hillary really be answering the phone at 3 am? I kind of think not.

Maddy said...

I really don't like political attack ads. I actually don't like political ads at all. I read this really interesting article about how people in the US tend to be divided into two camps: people who are really really political and have really strong opinions, and people who are indifferent and don't want anything to do with politics. This isn't a rule, just a trend. It was saying that a lot of people are turned off by being polarized and having to commit to one really strong "black or white" opinion. I think maybe I tend to be in the second group. I've been following the race, and I'm not thinking that all the candidates are bad or anything, but in general they just seem so desperate. I understand that there are several people who really really want to be President, but it seems like kind of a selfish thing to have to have people compete and prove how they're the best and their opponents suck. Maybe? So I guess I do have political opinions, they're just kind of cynical against politics in general...

Casey said...

Usually when I watch political ads, I sit back and laugh because the things they say (and visuals they use) are pretty ridiculous. Did you notice that Hilary was in a suit and pearls. Was she just coming in at 3am or did she change before answering the phone? She also let it ring 5 times before she answered. Good thing it wasn't a real emergency!

I am not necessarily supporting this candidate and I know this candidate did not create this ad but... you are talking about visuals and politics. What do you think about Obama Girl's videos? the link to one of the videos is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSxxlj6rGE.

HaNNaH said...

Casey -- I definately think this is not classy and I can't see how it would help Obama (odd sign of support). Although, the SNL sketch using obamagirl was very funny, and classier...

Casey said...

Exactly. The strangest thing to me, though is that people like them. I tried to find some hip Hilary videos and all I could find was an Obama Girl parody called Hott4Hill. Why do you think this is? Don't you think it's a little bizarre that this is so popular in the middle of a contest where sterotypes are being broken?

In this ad, Obma girl is using the same thing every other marketing person uses to sell their product. So, not only is she cheapening herself, and promoting images that I personally don't like to see (If you haven't watched the video it isn't nice but you'll see worse in an Abercrombie or Holister store or on MTV), but she is using the same old thing to promote her product (Obama) when his campaign is about change, and bringing in something new. The craziest thing is that so many people I know, think this is hip and fresh and that Hilary is boring (Actually, she is my favorite candidate although I detested the 3am commercial.) I like politics and issues not advertising and false images! I would love to see an authentic candidate. I think part of the problem is that they start campaigning so early and they have to keep people watching. So they manufacture drama. Back to the 3am commercial, I heard the sleeping girls were images purchased from Getty images and that the blonde girl is an 18 year old Obama campaign worker who is definately not happy about her image being used. (Lesson - be careful who you sell your image to.) But, on the plus side, even if everyone hates it, it has gotten people talking and thinking.