Political Ads Discussion
Nicole Odekirk
Go to the Living Room Candidate site put up by the American Museum of the Moving Image at
http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php. Look through the ads on the Living Room
Candidate site (any year, any candidate you wish) and tell us about an ad that you think fits one of those
ad types described in the text. What characteristics lead you to place it in that category? Does it fit more
than one category? What is your reaction to the ad? Do you think it was effective at the time it was aired?
Respond to others' posts.
I choose an advertisement from the 2012 Obama and Mitt Romney Election Year. The ad that interested
me he most was the “Give Me a Break” Advertisement Endorsed by Mitt Romney. I choose this ad
because I think it is a great example of multiple categories and really does not contain any truly valid
information that would help the voter decide whom to vote for or what decision will solve the problem that
is supposedly being addressed. The advertisement is 30 seconds long and opens with a picture of
Barrack Obama looking down cast and has the title “Obama economy even worse” Which is quoting the
Washington Times in order for it to appear credible and then a voice over appears and explains how
Barrack Obama is turning to Bill Clinton to help his campaign and starts to state that Bill is “A good soldier
helping his party’s president.” It then gives small sound bites showing some of Bills supporting statements
and continues to ask what Bill thought of him in 2008 and uses sound bites and flashes of news showing
Bill Clinton saying “Give me a break, this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen.” After this
we see multiple flashes of statistics about the failing economy and bits about the failing economy. It then
ends with a sound bit of Bill Clinton saying give me a break as to show that his first opinion is Bill honest
opinion and that supporting Mitt Romney will be the answer to the economic problems we were facing in
2012.
This fits perfectly into the negative campaign advertisement category as it is showing Barrack Obama in a
negative light and cast him as the failing and ridiculous President who is not capable of helping the middle
class economy which was struggling heavily at the time with high unemployment rates. The ad brings up
the economic issue and then places blame on Barrack and seems to end with the idea that Mitt Romney
would be able to handle the situation. It does this without any mention of what caused the economy to be
in its current state just gives the current state of affairs and does give any mention of how Mitt Romney is
going to fix the problem. It eloquently focuses on how Barrack Obama had not fixed the situation.
At the same time the ad also fits into the Backfire ad by attacking the support of Bill Clinton and using
previous words and sounds bites taken out of context to make it seem as if Bill support is compulsory and
should not be taken into account. This is important as Bill was considered to be a successful president in
stimulating the economy and his support would put faith in the voters that Barrack is on the right track.
I think this ad was very well done. It was able to effectively discredit his opponent and his opponents
support in a matter of 30 seconds, which is about the amount of time the average American would pay
attention to the advertisement. I think it was very effective in that it seemed to address an issue that many
Americans were angry about. This emotional connection and fueling of anger while giving them someone
to put place blame is an efficient way to turn people against his opponent. At the same time it is negating
an important argument from Bill Clinton that Obama is still on the correct path. All of this was placed in
one advertisement while seeming to seriously address a large issue but really it contained no information
of value. It is a very persuasive and fallacy driven essay given in a matter of 30 seconds. Many other
advertisements were of this nature and we can see that it was effective in that the final election numbers
were very close. Obama barely won. All this being said I would not want to pay attention to this
advertisement for any reason than to take note to spend time looking at the economic numbers and see
what the individual plan of each candidate actually is.