If you live in a Super Tuesday state, and you happen to be one of the unfortunately deprived Americans yet to be blessed with the most extraordinary invention of the last quarter-century – Tivo – you have already probably seen some of the presidential candidates’ latest television ads. While there were some last-minute ad buys from Mitt Romney and John McCain, the real action is on the Democratic side, and they’re coming fast and furious – in fact, there are far too many to cover all of them. So we’ll examine the more interesting ones, starting with the dueling Kennedys. Here’s Barack Obama’s, featuring John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, who with her uncle Ted just endorsed Obama:
Hillary Clinton counters with her own Kennedy, Robert Jr.:
These ads seem almost identical: the Kennedy child testifies that his/her favored candidate is for all intents and purposes the reincarnation of his/her father. But Obama’s works better for a couple of reasons. First, the visuals in the Obama ad do a better job of drawing the parallel between him and JFK. Each of the JFK images has a pair in the Obama images – JFK before a crowd, JFK walking in slow motion, and the shot of the flag being planted on the moon (the symbol of JFK’s optimistic can-do American spirit) that segues into the shot of Obama walking toward another American flag. The images of Clinton in her ad, on the other hand, are similar to the RFK images in that they both show them among people, but because the shot of a politician with people is so common, it lacks any particular symbolism. Second and more important, there is an imbalance in the messages. The argument Obama makes for his candidacy is that he is like JFK (whether he’s talking about JFK at a particular time or not): he’s optimistic, hopeful, and represents a new generation of leadership. But Hillary Clinton’s core argument is about her experience and preparation for the job. So when in the ad Robert Kennedy, Jr, says, “My father tried to be a voice for the most alienated and disenfranchised members of our society…today, Hillary Clinton is the champion of the voiceless in our society,” it seems a little off-base. If anyone in this campaign tried to be the champion of the voiceless, it was John Edwards, not Hillary Clinton. So as nice as an endorsement from RFK, Jr. is, it doesn’t reinforce Clinton’s core message. Furthermore, it’s possible that Clinton’s ad could actually end up helping Obama. MORE ...
