Monday, October 13, 2008

For next week: two political ads to consider

Here are two ads, one from the McCain campaign and one from the Obama campaign. They are quite different in style (and length), but they are both examples of the same basic political strategy. What is that strategy?

"Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"


"KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis"

10 comments:

Miguel Tepale said...

Out of curiosity, what political party are you a member of? You do not have to answer if this question is to personal.

Corey Frost said...

I'm not a member of any political party, and in fact I have no vote here because I'm not an American citizen. (I'm from Canada.) This is convenient, in a way, because as your teacher I wouldn't want to tell you about my own political affiliations. You're not in my class to learn who to vote for, after all. However, you are in my class, in part, to learn how to read and react responsibly to political rhetoric, so we're going to be talking about all the parties and the rhetoric they use.

Amar Kaur said...

Although these two adds are different in style and length but have the same purpose; to get voter's attention. These campaign's strategies are being used to potray Mc cain as someone who made wrong judgement during financial crises and will repeat his actions; giving voters a mind set that he is not the right choice.
Same way, Mccain's political campaign's strategy potray's obama as a good friend or supporter of Ayer,a bomer. Purpose is same here ; to give voters a mind set that Obama is not the right choice.

Amar Kaur said...

After reading the articles and exploring some more, I think anti-patriotism technique is being used against Obama. Ad says that he is friends with Ayer, who is a bomer, trying to say he is not patriotic.
Whereas, negetive fact and figure technique is being used against McCain proving that he has made mistakes making financial decisions before and most likely will make same mistakes again.

Enjolras said...

Since the beginning of time politicians have wasted all their campaign money on tearing the other opponent down rather than clearly selling their views to us. It's gotten to the point where you really don't know which side is right and which side is just making stuff up.

Enjolras said...

Regarding this method of advertising, I think using Blogs and sites like Youtube to distribute ad messages are very effective and helpful political tools. One can search a particular point, newsworthy item, ideal or philisophy, a particular candidate, etc. and get instant feedback across the board. It's much easier to watch an interesting video, than read a lengthy and wordy article in the NY Times. The only drawback is that you can't establish a person's credentials so easily when trying to decide which is fact and which is fiction. I guess that's research for another day.

michelle :] said...

politics have come down to a childrens level. its not a matter of who is going to do what for the country, it seems to have beocme a game of who can be the bigger bully, who can influence more people to hate the other candidate, and who can make themself look like the hero. candidates and their parties need to stop trash talking their competition and deliver.

jacqueline said...

In China, we have a well-know philosophy which is "No one visited in the poor downtown, but the rich lived in the mountains who have distant relatives." and i think this well-know saying fits to describe Obama. Obama was a general teacher in the law university 10 years ago. he was a poor child and did not have inherited the political capital. But he is a attractive candidate.
The first ad is assaulting about Obama who is related with terrorist. And the second ad is assaulting McCain who is a bad economist. if he become a president of America, American economy will fall into valley.

myoussef100 said...

Those videos declare the weaknesses of Obama and McCain and I also analyzed that those two videos were used to show the anger , not to show which the real plan of Obama or McCain will lead America to the better status , but I want to say that if these videos weren't extracted this way , they would be so boring . I feel that because if you anger from someone , You will use your means and ideas to put the perfect images of how this someone is bad and doesn't deserve any good treatment.

Miguel Tepale said...

Attack ads, what a waste of time and money. Why don't politicians use their time and money wisely promoting their ideas and plans that can have a greater impact on Americans. Yet in this world, you have to go as far as making your opponent look bad in order to win your vote on election day. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!