Politicians always say they don’t pay attention to polls, but wouldn’t you know it, now that the economy shows up as the number one issue concerning voters, all the presidential candidates have come out with ads stressing their concern about the economy. As usual, it’s a collection of hits, near misses, and comical whiffs. Let’s start with the Republicans, beginning with he of square jaw and fat bank account, Mitt Romney:
This ad unveils a new visual trope, the Rotating Tube of Praise. This is actually pretty clever -- if a viewer is left wondering, “What’s with the tubes?”, that means their eye was grabbed and they might even have read what was on them. But the end of the ad is curious. The announcer says, “We vote for Mitt Romney,” but if you aren’t squinting closely, you won’t realize that he’s reading from the National Review’s endorsement. What you’re more likely seeing as you hear the words is the photographs on the screen, which show Romney amongst voters. So who are the “we” voting for Mitt Romney? Judging from the pictures, the answer is old white people. You’ll never guess where this ad was airing. On to John McCain’s Florida message:
Like some other McCain ads, this one has no visuals -- they just plop McCain in front of a flag and give him a script. And it’s an inelegant mash-up of a message on the economy and a message on national security. Perhaps the McCain camp believed that since McCain has plenty of credibility on national security (deserved or not), but no credibility on the economy, if they put the two together people would think he knows what he’s talking about on the latter, beyond his promise to crack Alan Greenspan's book when he gets a chance. But unlike, say, The Grey Album, the combination doesn’t really work here. Other than the fact that national security and the economy are both, you know, issues, the message doesn’t unite them in any way.
