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.