Greg Laden's Blog

In what way does this add elicit fear? Fear of what? I'm genuinely curious - not knowing US elections or campaigning too well I don't always pick up on the undercurrents.

For me it does two things - cuts away at a negative ad, by pointing out the man behind the curtain in a moderately clever way (I'm not sure if pointing out your opponent is using a negative ad is negative campaigning - it's certainly getting into murky territory). The other thing it has is a very white young woman saying she's for Obama. Which is largely a 'so, who are you?' - but I guess it's a way of reaching out to white voters.

Posted by: Idlethought | March 25, 2008 7:45 PM

There's no question this isn't a logical argument contained in this at all, but as a political advertisement it is very well done and strikes me as highly effective. Dare I say it, it uses "framing"?

Idlethought, the main accusation made in regard to the original Clinton advertisement was that it tapped into/ reiforced the entire "OMG VOTE FOR ME OR WE WONT BE SAFE FROM THE TERRORISTS" sort of attitude. I'm not sure how fair that is but the response is in that context. Also, Obama has repeatedly called for rejecting the "politics of fear" in favor of the "politics of hope" so to some extent this is just connecting it with the previous messages that the public has hear.

Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | March 25, 2008 9:39 PM

Idlethought:

The American feminiSS left used the image of children sleeping in their beds to create the image that men are somehow bigger child abusers than women( they are not), and that sleep space is safe space when the matriarch is around ( less than true, when we consider the number of children abused by their mothers versus their natural fathers).

So a " young white woman" in the ad represents exactly the type of female voter that the same feminiSS left has tried to creep into the bedroom and the mind of, for the last generation--and this particular white girl is opposed to those transparent fem tactics. This ad is just an updated example of that politic, i.e., instead of father answering the phone( the feminists especially hated fathers in the home) we have the matriarch--'safe and strong Goddess' Hillary.

Lastly, the ad plays on the famous Daisy ad of the cold war:
http://www.conelrad.com/daisy/index.php
Note the blue child?

The color blue has a lot to do with simple color theory, i.e. 'the blues' are sad, when you feel blue, and also ironically, one of the colors used to paint prison cells( most of which were built here in the U.S. during the feminist fear campaigns of the late 80's, 90's) in the belief that the color has a 'calming' or neutralizing effect.
??
;-)

Posted by: the real cmf | March 25, 2008 11:56 PM