McCain Ad - "Stand"

This is a good example of bandwagon jumping and common person, as well as testimonials (whew!). This was aimed at younger people, a body of voters that McCain did not have a good grip on. They talk about different topics that they support McCain in, but most seem like glittering generalities (I stand for Health Care Reform.... ok...what about it?)

While it uses many of the techniques we've seen in class I don't find it an effective ad. Sure, it's colorful and feels young,but we never see the face of the man they stand for, or even his voice approving the young people's endorsement. It doesn't hit any specifics on his policy.

Pretty colors are energetic music are just not enough these days...

2008 Obama Ad - Plan for Change

This ad brings us back from the many smear and negative campaign ads to talk about actual policy. It focuses on what Obama propose to give the middle class and appeals to our wallets. Of course, he is probably card stacking and talks about the things that will help keep money in people's pockets, but he is open about people going to his website and reading the plan. He isn't trying to hide anything. A great link between his tv ads and his internet based campaign efforts.

NRSC Ad - Jim Martin Fact #16

First off I want to say this is a well made ad, graphically. It's dynamic, fun, and just looks dandy, especially for a smear ad.

Here we see card stacking against Jim Martin from Georgia in his ongoing campaign for senate. It also utilizes clips from his own ads, perhaps out of context, to sass us a little.

This is an effective ad that grabs our attention and could easily convince a red state like Georgia not to vote for him.

Free Coffee!

Yum!

I like this ad. It appeals to people's sense of patriotism and caring, and I do think the message carries through. Some might says it's Starbucks bribing people to vote, but I see it more of a reward and an incentive for a people that are disillusioned with their government to take a stand and utilize one of their biggest right to change it.

I am pretty sure this got a good deal of people to booths, just as much as it did to Starbucks shops. Good for the country, but even more so good for their business! As propaganda it serves its purpose well.

Chuck Norris Approved

Talk about celebrity endorsements!

Huckabee has a good sense of humor. Here he uses transfers and testimonials from famous action hero, Chuck Norris, as well as comically reminding us how kick-ass Chuck Norris is. And if someone so kick ass endorses him, shouldn't we?

While there is little talk about policy, this is a refreshing ad that is sure to make people smile. The question is, do we need a funny leader right now? I am sure Huckabee had other ads to contrast this funny one, talking about his policies, and probably others slamming the other candidates (cause we always need those).

Is it effective? It might sway some young voters and get a chuckle from people that will already vote Huckabee, but I doubt this would get him a big advantage over others.

And it didn't..

From the McCain Camp: The One?

Uh... Ok.

An interesting Ad!

It portrays Obama as a new savior and messiah, citing out of context quotes, card stacking and name calling, mocking his campaign as if he were declaring himself THE ONE (dun dun dun).

I really don;t see this ad being effective at all. If anything, I find it racist and slightly offensive. It makes Obama seem like a crazy televangelist who will heal everyone and everything. Some people hae even seen this ad as making OBama into the anti-christ, resorting to fear to keep some very very ignorant people in the McCain camp. Religion, after all, is very important for many voters... even though there was this little thing... Separation of church and state?

The ad closes with a question, "Is he ready to lead?" By this time, I can see very conservative religious people getting their pitchforks ready. But is it effective as an ad? I don't think so. While it may appeal to a small percentage of the McCain camp, I don't see this getting any new voters for him. The message is muddled and never really clear, and it is just a ridiculous attempt to put a stain in the Obama campaign. This definitely hurts McCain more than help him.

A massive scare tactic that's just plain ol' silly... Besides... Didn't another president declare God told him to invade a country?

From the Obama Camp: McCain can't send an email?

The purpose of this ad is to show McCain as being out of touch with the world, as if he were stuck back in the 80's. Half of this ad is probably not as effective as the Obama campaign would think it would be.

While it is humorous to see a young-er McCain juxtaposed to a big 1982 (and a disco ball.... slightly off by a decade or two but...) and to huge cell phones and record players, the ad starts by saying he cannot use a computer or send emails. While I do think this is an important skill to have, especially by a president, this alienates the many, many people in the us who don't really use computers OR send emails. This may rally most people in big cities, but if this ad is trying to bring over McCain supporters to the Obama side, this will not work so well. Many retired people don't use the computer, as well as many people living in rural environments. These people generally support McCain already, and this might just seem as more of the so called Obama "elitism".

The second part of the ad works much better. It deals with the McCain tax cuts for big corporations and barely anything for the working middle class. If there is something we can all agree on, is that the more money we can keep the better.

The ad ends by comparing McCain to Bush, stating they are the same and that we can't afford more of the same. Note the use of spending words such as afford. Most of the campaign this year has been on spending and saving as this is, for many voters, the main concern.

Not a terribly effective ad. They should focus on the economy and not on McCain's tech savvy. I am sure Palin can teach him how to buy clothes online.

Anti Game Violence Ad

This comes from a campaign to "educate" people about violence in video games (www.gameover.info). Their website seems to not exist any more, but I found these images on my search of propaganda images to review.

Here they use fear to persuade us that violence in games will inherently make our youth violent murderers. The images are rather graphic (more can be found at http://www.pictureorama.com/2008/09/cool-anti-game-violence-propaganda.html ) and seeing youth boys covered in blood or dressed in military gear is disturbing. In the one posted above, they tell us how shooter games create a brutal and manipulating virtual reality.

I am biased here, because I think people are using games as an escape goat. I do agree with the ad in that parents should be careful of what their kids play. But games are not the sole source of violence children receive. All of the media nowadays is filled with it! Placing the blame on one kind of entertainment (it is the newest form, so it is easy to blame it) seems stupid.

Is the ad effective? It definitely makes you think about it. Do we really want a 8 year old blowing up people in games? Will they turn into monsters because of this? It does make you think, although they leave out a lot of other facts on the topic of our youth being desensitized by violence.

Don't Vote Ad.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

This is a great ad to get people to vote. It is a cohesive ad that persuades us to vote using reverse psychology (telling us not to vote), fear (stating the issues that are affecting us right now), then suddenly switching to a more friendly tone by using common person mannerisms, transfers and testimonials, and eventually inviting us to jump in the bandwagon. Every now and then we see satire, and seeing all these famous people talking to us personally and interactively is quite effective. In the end, they also invite us to spread this ad around for them. Perfect!

Kudos for this ad! It does feel that it is leaning towards one candidate more than the other (they way they present the issues seems to support Obama more than McCain), but never do they tell us who to vote for. Just to vote. So go vote!

Review: Thriumph of the Will

Wow.

From the art and film standpoint, I can see why this film is often considered one of the best films. The cinematography is great and the techniques the director uses are perfectly executed. But then you remember the content and message of the film and it gives you chills down your spine.

It tries to seduce us into seeing the Nazi movement as not so bad. And then you have to slap yourself to come back to reality. It IS very effective as a propaganda piece, as it sells the political party as a gift of the gods, but this one is hard to judge without being completely objective. After all, as we all know, the Nazi party was far from a heavenly gift. Perhaps the exact opposite. Living here, today, and watching this was truly scary, but if you put yourself in the shoes of a german boy watching this...this would have been frikkin' inspiring to them. And that's the really scary part! They were geniuses for making and using this film...evil, evil geniuses.

While this is a great film to learn from when it comes to techniques and film language, it made me uncomfortable. That, and you can probably put your DVD player on 4x speed and see the whole thing like that. It DOES tend to drag on.

Question: As an artist, where do we draw the line? And on what set of morals should our work be judged?

Any Bonds Today?

Here is a link to "Any Bonds Today?", a Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoon from 1942.



This short has ofted been banned for its use of blackface by Bugs Bunny (Well, it IS racist!). The purpose of this short was to bring people together into buying war bonds to support the effort in World War II. Using the Warner Bros characters, who wouldn't want to do so? This is a cartoon example of transfer techniques and bandwagon jumping, using the patriotic theme to bring people together.

It does raise the question... How effective was this cartoon with African Americans? They were not, perhaps, the group being targeted by the ad, but I am pretty sure they were very insulted by this, and with every right too!

Reading: Art, Propaganda, and Facism

This was a good read, focusing on the use of propaganda in fascists dictatorships during and around the World Wars. Not only pro-war, but anti war as well.

Interestingly enough, we see the two philosophies. While Germany was trying to go back to classic greek art and to their roots, keeping a traditional style, Italy was more interested in futurism and industrialization (A car being more beautiful than those ol' paintings, they said). In both, though, the messages were clear: to trust in their government, to deitify their rulers, and to make sure people lived for their nation. Of course, we see a few examples of art opposing the war (not much, though).

Both facist governments used propaganda to reinforce their ideals of war and a "perfect race" and its superiority. They effectively used art to unite the country into believing their ideals and fight a horrible war which they thought was good.

Such is the power of images!

Gunga-Din Review

Gunga-Din... what an interesting movie! It was definitely entertaining and I was glad I saw it. I tended to get lost in the movie and forgot what I had to pay attention to: to analize it for class.. But now I took a step back and thought more about it.

This is not a historically accurate film, no matter how much the movie tries to tell us it was. The main characters were no Gunga-Din himself but three British soliders who were portrayed as supermen. Gunga-Din, in turn, was merely a sidekick character, stereotypically played by another white actor with make-up. Deep inside, Gunga-Din wanted the respect of the white men of the west, portraying the western culture as the good and civilized one.

The bad guys where Indian nationalists, worshippers of Kali. For being the world's "best mountain fighters", they were portrayed as cowards, except for the leader, whom I thought was pretty well played and gave the Kali worshippers a smart leader to follow. Of course, he dies.

But, it was still an entertaining movie. I would watch it again! For such an old film it was well made, the battle scenes were well coreographed for the time (yeah, the punches looked fake. But that shouldn;t take away from the film.)

Good times, old chap.

Obama Splash Page

This is the image in the splash page for Barack Obama's campaing site (www.obama.com). Here we see him with his wife and daughter, as a cote family group. They smile, and are low on the ground. They seem like people you'd like having a picnic with, and are just approachable and friendly. A very effective Common Person ad. The word Change in bold letters reminds us of the core of Mr Obama's campaing, and by placing it with their tender family portrait, tells us that change will be good, friendly, and quite nice. It tells us he is Change.

How Art Made the World review

Episode 3,
The Art of Persuasion.

This documentary shows us how propaganda has been around for longer than we think, dating back to Stonehenge, quite possibly, and takes us on a journey through time to visit the techniques invented by Darius the Great, Alexander the Great, and Augustus.

While the topic is interesting (I love ancient history), the show itself was rather...odd? For starters it is overly dramatized to get the point across. They edited it in a way to make it seem epic, and the narrator uses repetition of the same words to drill them into our head. (He seems to have a grudge against Augustus). Sinister is perhaps the word most used in this film!

The message is clear though; to show us that the art of persuasion dates far back, beyond American politics and the World Wars. It is a neutral tool that can be used for good or bad. If anything, it is a reminder that we shouldn;t believe everything we see or hear in the media without researching and seeing what all the sides of the issue are. And as an artist, it is a reminder of the power we have when it comes to shaping the world.

Campaign 2008 - Bandwagon Jumping.

Here we see a cohesive Common Person ad. It gives us ownership of the elections (which is true after all!). By stating that everyone is doing it as well, it invites us to document how we are spending and participating in the election process and submit our films (Bandwagon jumping).

Common Person and Bandwagon Jumping seem to be really popular techniques nowadays!

Bandwagon Jumping - Common Person

Here is an example of bandwagon jumping and common person techniques used in a web advertisement from Chevron, seen in ccn.com.


Here we see a normal everyday Joe. He is not happy, nor sad. His expression sets the tone for a serious message. "I will use less energy," he states inviting us to join in the effort to save energy. We can also seem to relate to the man, feeling he is "one of us" rather than some hotshot in the Big Oil industry.

An effective ad, and certainly makes Chevron look like they care about the energy crisis, although it is not clear if it is an environment standpoint or economical one. Could be both as well! It definitely tells us that the solution isn't only in the hands of Big Oil. But then again, are they just passing the torch to us?

AH 452 Journal

Hello! You have reached my journal for my Art History: Propaganda Art class.