I’m not sure I get the Bush Commercial
This reminds me of a critical story NBC did on Ronald Reagan. They showed pictures of him in all these different places and then compared his record to his rhetoric. It was quite damning. They then asked Deaver or someone to respond and the person loved it–great pictures. Nobody would remember the text. If I watch this commercial, I don’t necessarily get a negative image of Kerry, I get a lot of damning claims about the President. What am I going to remember?
It seems to me that this is the reverse story where the content hurts more than it helps. Via Rick Klau.
You’re right, that is a weird ad.
It looks like it’s a web ad rather than something designed for broadcast. So my guess is that it’s something for limited distribution used to fire up Republicans. This is similar to using images of Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich to fire up Democrats.
Isn’t it telling, though, that the INCUMBENT who has a four-year record feels the need to rally his base by attacking his critics? What a contrast to “Morning in America” and “Bridge to the 21st Century.”
It’s odd to give this message such prominent play on the web site. I can only speculate that the Bush/Cheney polling is showing that chasing after the undecided vote is not worth it, and is hoping to win by increasing base turnout.
The commercial is to get the true believers to open their wallets.
But instead of making the GOP base feel like victims of elitists the commercial emphasizes the Bush administration as victims of unfair criticism. This works if the audience identifies with Bush and his administration in a rock-solid way.
However, Bush has gone from being liked and trusted to being disliked and distrusted. My suspicion is that Bush is losing some luster even with the GOP faithful.
And this commercial will play differently if you are a rank-and-file Republican who thinks Bush is “all that” from if you are a rank-and-file Republican that hates Dems b/c of X, Y and Z, but don’t esp. like Bush either.
I see the Bush PR team as being months behind the times. They had it easy for a long time after the 9/11 attacks. When the media reports everythign you say in a favorable light, it’s hard to screw-up. But they haven’t adjusted well to the more skeptical environment they now find themselves in.
“It looks like it’s a web ad rather than something designed for broadcast.”
Rick told me that the absence of the “I’m George Bush and I approved this ad,” indicates that it is not for broadcast by BC’04.