By: Tom Stowe
Professor: Lori Bedell
Class: CAS 137H
Obamaville: A “Pathos”-logical Nightmare
What do you think of when you hear “20 percent?” Most people think of a failing grade or
horrible odds in a game but 20 percent is also the average turn out of Americans in primary and
midterm elections (McCabe). With such a low turnout in primary elections, politicians need to know who
actually votes in primaries so they can get the nomination. The truth of the matter is that most of the
voters in a primary come from the extreme left or the extreme right. This is why during the primaries;
ads, debates, and appearances by the politicians always appear to take the extremist viewpoint on
issues. Yet in the general election, politicians appear to be more moderate. This is why when Rick
Santorum released his Obamaville ad, during the primary campaign, it contained several extremist
claims and opinions. However, due to a lack of funds Santorum was not able to actual buy a commercial
slot for the ad or produce the other eight his campaign had originally promised to publish (Poe). The
commercial blames Obama for everything that is going wrong in the country and forecasts a dark
unsavory future for America that will occur within the next two years. The fact that the ad even states
directly that this will occur by 2014 makes the issue even more urgent because it states that we are
running out of time to change our future and the 2012 election is the only time we can undoubtedly
change our fate.
In the past four years Americans have seen the biggest economic crisis since the Great
Depression, international tensions on the rise with several countries trying to gain nuclear capabilities,
and an unpredictable job market. Americans have found it difficult to describe the state of our union
due to the lack of one coherent opinion of what is going on. Democrats say the job market is getting
better as the number of jobs are increasing, the economy is getting back on its feet and the United
States has stood strong in international affairs. Yet, Republicans say they opposite: the economy has not
improved and is still stagnate and might even be getting worse, the world is falling apart as countries
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see the United States as weak, and our government has done nothing to enforce its values and keep its
credibility alive in the international community. Obamaville is a commercial spouting the latter opinion
as its exigence. Obamaville contains false and contentious reasoning, and focuses mainly on pathos to
try and sway people to its side. Aristotle warned against pathos saying it was too powerful and
rhetoricians should be cautious and stay away from using emotional appeals (Hawhee 171). The
Obamaville commercial released by Rick Santorum’s campaign, makes little factual claims but generally
stays with nonspecific ideas that they believe will be able to motivate the watcher to vote against
Obama in the 2012 election. So while the commercial itself tends to focus on pathos it also contains
several cases of subliminal messaging which calls into question what Santorum was willing to do to gain
support.
The main problem of the Obamaville ad is that the commercial is filled with false and
contentious reasoning and with general notions that are presented as logos but are not supported. For
example, the scene of religion under attack had great symbolism with the candle of religious freedom
being blown out leaving nothing but darkness. However that was it. They never said anything about how
religion was under attack. The original idea for why religion was under attack was the idea that Obama
was actually a Muslim and in a speech he had talked about the separation of church and state. This is an
attempt to try and connect with a commonplace among Americans. Americans are generally religious
and they believe religion helps to provide morals and helps people to live a generous altruistic life.
Americans’ religious beliefs also usually form the basis of their network of interpretations thus by
threatening religion, Americans could feel more urgency to an issue since it is such a vital part of their
identity. However, the commercial never quoted Obama or called into question Obama’s religious
beliefs, which still would have been false reasoning. Another example is “…the wait for a doctor is ever
increasing” but the problem is they do not mention Obamacare or how Obamacare will increase the
wait for a doctor (Obamaville). Everything the commercial says is intent on scaring the audience to
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increase the sense of urgency as well as to perpetuate this belief that they need to vote against Obama
but without facts every claim they make appears as empty hogwash. The commercial overall is really
well done but it provides no support for its claims and this is why many commentators have dismissed
most of the claims as false or irrelevant in the upcoming election (Poe). With the fact that political
analysts on both sides have dismissed this commercial causes its appeals to commonplaces and network
of interpretations to lose most of its affect. However, Obamaville also uses pathos, an emotional appeal,
to motivate its audience to act.
Obamaville uses powerful imagery, vague claims, and a somber delivery to ignite an emotional
response within the audience. One of the most powerful images is the light of religious freedom being
blown out leaving nothing but darkness. This is obviously an attempt to say without religion our country
will be lead into the dark becoming arrogant, ignorant, and selfish. This is a powerful symbol that
actually can connect to religious people but coupled with the lack of facts and the other failed proofs it
does not appear to have the impact it was intended to. The delivery of Obamaville is also very important
to the pathos of the ad. The narrator has a deep somber voice and the camera angles switch constantly
and suddenly. In the last twenty seconds, the camera shot changes at least twenty five times with most
of the images being indiscernible if you are watching the commercial at normal speed. The constant and
sharp changes added to the narrator’s voice make the delivery almost chilling, making the issues seem
more imperative. Aristotle said emotional proofs can appeal to anger, love, hate, fear, shame,
compassion, pity, indignation, envy, joy, and hope and obviously Obamaville is trying to ignite fear and
some might even say anger towards Obama and his administration (Hawhee 183).
Coupled with this attempt to ignite emotions through their claims, Obamaville also has many
cases of subliminal messaging. For one second on a television screen within the commercial Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is switched out for Obama trying to show them both are a dangerous threat to America.
Two more prevalent cases of subliminal messaging occur within the last twenty seconds of the
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commercial where an image of meat going through a meat grinder and a picture of an eye are used for
half a second each. Both images no one is entirely sure why they are used, other than just the fact that
the images are abnormal and make the audience feel uneasy. The Obamaville commercial’s central
focus is to ignite fear in the audience and to make them fear for the country’s survival as well as their
own. Using such images they try to reinforce this fear and uneasiness. However, psychological research
has shown that subliminal messaging has a short effect on the audience. It ignites an emotional
response but the response quickly fades and the viewer forgets the feeling it has caused (Goleman). Also
subliminal messaging cannot make a person do anything that they were not already going to do
(Goleman). Therefore these images will not cause a Liberal to suddenly become a strong Conservative
but it can reinforce someone’s fear that Obama will destroy the country if reelected. With subliminal
messaging it is hard to tell how effective it is since most people have little knowledge that it was actually
contained within the commercial. So one must try to decipher what caused the emotional response: was
it the claims or was it caused by the subliminal messaging. However, subliminal messaging was just
another way that Santorum was trying to ignite an emotional response among the audience.
Santorum tries to connect with his audience in attempt to make his points seem more valid and
to make himself seem more caring. Aristotle said that for pathos to be effective one must show an
immediate threat to the audience (Heehaw 176). Santorum’s commercial tries to do this in many ways
at one point it says this is a “cautionary tale” and it originally only says “Imagine a small American town
two years from now…” it does not say anything about what town it is so it is trying to leave that up to
the audience to interpret (Obamaville). The reason why the small American town is so important is
because many conservatives are middle class or upper class, which are two classes not likely to live
within a city. Therefore, it connects more with the intended audience of the commercial even though it
has a chance to isolate those who live in cities. Also it is not saying it will occur in the distant future it
says two years from now and constantly shows 2014 painted on a wall. Also it says in the end “…where
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one president’s failed policies really hit home…” (Obamaville). He is trying to make the audience feel
that the issue is urgent and that life will drastically change if Obama is reelected.
Another way Santorum tries to connect to the audience is by the use of characters throughout
the film. There are shots of the American farmer, a grandmother looking out the window and not having
any joy in her face, American middle class parents standing in the kitchen worried about their job and
home, and an innocent little girl sitting out on a rundown porch in tattered clothes. These are some of
Santorum’s attempts to reach out to the middle class, religious people, and people who are struggling to
pay for their homes. He hopes by connecting to all these different groups that they will feel as if he
understands their problems and therefore will help them. Also, there are several shots of people being
fired trying again to connect to an audience of people who lost their jobs in the economic downturn in
2008 and still have not gotten them back. All of these claims attempt to connect with the audience but
even with the connection there is little hope for change. The commercial itself provides no alternative
plans for what Santorum hopes to do for the country or what any other plan. Therefore, one is left
wondering Obama might be doing all of this but what would you do differently. Therefore, the
commercial again causes itself to lose validity by solely attacking Obama.
So the reason why this matters is the next time you are sitting on your couch watching television
and you see an ad such as Obamaville, look past the empty rhetorical proofs, do not get wrapped up in
the hysteria of the commercial but develop your own opinion of the issues brought up. The Obamaville
commercial is a great example of how pathos can be taken to the extreme and end up losing credibility
especially if there is false reasoning used to back up the claims that are being made. Therefore, the most
people view Obamaville as an attempt to scare an audience into voting against Obama. Overall,
Obamaville is filled with the empty political rhetoric Americans generally assume they will hear during a
politician’s speech.
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Work Cited
Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 5th ed. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 1999. Print.
Goleman, Daniel. "Research Probes What the Mind Senses Unaware." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 14 Aug. 1990. Web. 04 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/14/science/research-probes-what-the-mind-sensesunaware.html?pagewanted=all>.
McCabe, Brian. "Primary Voter Turnout Stays Low, but More So for Democrats."
FiveThirtyEight. The New York Times, 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 09 Oct. 2012
<http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/primary-voter-turnout-stays-low-butmore-so-for-democrats/>.
Poe, Catherine. ""Welcome to Obamaville" Is Rick Santorum's "Hunger Games" (Video)." Washington
Times Communities. Washinton Times Communities, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012.
<http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ad-lib/2012/mar/26/welcomeobamaville-rick-santorums-hunger-games-vid/>.