This post was going to be one of those tiresome “work is so hectic, can’t post regularly, whine sob whimper...” jobs. Then Johnny caught the latest television ad from the braying Jacobins at Moveon PAC.
So in the interests of lowering the bar in the Great Limbo Dance of Propaganda, Knuckles offers wisdom and advice for those toiling in any number of Ministries of Truth.
The ad attacks Dick Cheney plan to use the Senate as a rubber stamp to confirm “corporate” judges. It shows an animated cutout of scowling Dick Cheney picking up the Senate building by the dome and using the bottom of the building as rubber stamp to stamp CONFIRMED on the files of a number of judges.
The voiceover states Cheney wants to overturn 200 years of tradition and use the Senate to rubberstamp eeeeevil Corporate Judges who listen to big business and ignore “people like you.”
The ad ends with Cheney wearing a crown and asks the rhetorical question “Just who made Dick Cheney king?”
Okay, no surprise where the Moveon panty-soilers fall on the issue or how they would frame the debate.
What Knuckles was interested in was how they presented their argument. Because the Left has such repellant ideas, their methods of persuasion are usually pretty effective…with or without a car battery clamped to the genitalia.
Knuckles was a bit disappointed and is saddened to report that aside from a neat visual idea, the ad falls flat.
The ad has its strong points. The Senate being picked up and used as a rubberstamp communicates the point effectively. The voiceover also reinforces the concept. But is it enough to carry the ad? It may have been, but the Moveon client made a tactical error that many other advertisers make: covering too many messages in one ad.
The ad’s villain is Dick Cheney. An easy choice on the face of it. Cheney is an unsympathetic leader in the administration. He is President of the Senate. And he’s viscerally hated by the Left. The problem is that Cheney is not perceived by most Americans to be the prime mover in the Senate debate. Moveon’s shrill accusations aside, Cheney is still just the Vice President: a job LBJ described as worthwhile as “a pitcher of warm piss.”
The ad woodenly animates a cut-out of Cheney. The effect is that he resembles and moves like John McCain walks. Seriously. As Cheney’s face gets closer, he become more recognizable and the voice-over identifies him as Cheney. Oh, okay. Viewer confusion: bad. Confusion with a generally sympathetic character: worse.
The files Cheney rubberstamps are white sheets on which the judges’ names are writ large. No pictures of the to-be-feared Corporate Judges. Hmmmm. Could it be that the Corporate Judges mentioned include wimmin (Susan Bieke Neilson and Priscilla Owen) and Moveon would appear to be sexist dillweeds if they trashed them?
No evidence is presented that connects the judges to capitalist malfeasance. Who the hell are John G. Roberts, Jeffery Sutton, William G. Myers III, and Terrence Boyle and why should anyone fear them? (A Jeffery S is partially revealed at the end to suggest ever more non-Marxist judges await in the wings.) So no connection is made between the judges and their crimes except the say-so of the voiceover.
The voiceover just states that they are Corporate judges who are biased towards to evil capitalist corporations and not “people like you.” Generally it’s a mistake to presume to speak for the viewer even when there is general agreement. Otherwise you risk appearing a smug know-it-all. And when you are a smug know-it-all, well, it’s especially important to conceal it.
Finally, ending the ad with a rhetorical question leaves the viewer powerless to act. Was the ad a string of talking points for watercooler debates? Are viewers to call their Senators? Drive by Cheney’s house and shoot out his porch light? What?
To recap, here’s why the ad fails in spite of a nifty visual concept:
C’mon, Moveon. You gals can do better. Or maybe you should be rooting out and purging the clandestine Republican operatives in your communications department.
On the bright side, Moveon has shortened Orwell’s famous “Two Minutes of Hate” into 30 seconds.
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