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!