With the New Hampshire primary tomorrow, our weekly ad analysis examines the TV spots being offered by the two men poised to win this critical contest: Barack Obama and John McCain. McCain seems to have found himself here almost by accident, while Obama’s campaign is here because it’s doing almost everything right. The ads are no exception. Let’s start with this one from Obama:
This ad portrays Obama as a kind of insider/outsider: yes, he’s in Washington, but in every way he is not of it. With the section that starts, “In Washington, he did what the others could not,” we see four still photos of Obama: one outside the White House, one in what looks like it could be a back hallway in a hotel, with chairs stacked up against a wall, one in an actual hearing room on Capitol Hill, and one speaking to a crowd. All four images set him apart. In the third, he is looking into the distance, with his mind seemingly on something larger and more important than the work at hand. In the fourth, he addresses a crowd seated at tables, but he seems to float above them. We can’t see his feet, but he’s standing on some sort of platform. Unless he can fly, which maybe he can. But it’s the first two photos which are the most interesting, and which may seem familiar to some. Compare them to this famous image of John F. Kennedy:
