The best political attack ad I completely disagree with
It’s just a fact: creative, arty types tend to be more liberal than conservative. And I always figured that went a long way toward explaining why so many conservative attack ads are so ridiculously bad.
Need we look any further than the attack ad mounted earlier this year by California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina — the so-called “demon sheep” ad?
But I’ll hand it to Indiana’s conservatives for this clever ad attacking Democrat Brad Ellsworth, who’s running for Evan Bayh’s seat in the US Senate. Taking that fantastic Google Superbowl Ad as its starting point, the folks over at FrugalHoosiers put together this video short:
I happen to like Ellsworth, because I think he’s the kind of Democrat Hoosiers can love. He’s moderate enough to create appeal among Indiana’s fiscal conservatives (he’s skeptical of cap-and-trade, for example). And he has a deep law-and-order background that plays well with Midwestern audiences, having served for 24 years in the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s office, where he spent several years as the elected Sheriff.
But it’s a clever ad. And, honestly, what I most admire about it, is that it doesn’t go further than it has to. No mushroom clouds, no swastikas, no demon sheep. In other words, no status quo.
That said, it’s also slightly disorienting. The conservative idea of “clever” usually sounds more like “drill, baby, drill,” tired jokes about Chappaquiddick or rote regurgitation of hillbilly catch phrases like “you can keep the change.”
Suddenly, subtlety. What’s going on here?
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Clever- but not necessarily original. I’ve seen several others like this one- in one case aimed at Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin. There seems to be an original template on which these ads are based- any backstory on it? Like, the name of the agency that makes them? Might be interesting to know.
Interesting, thanks for the heads up. I had the impression this one was home-grown, but I’ll be curious to find out if there’s a creative link…
In response to another comment. See in context »Aha. The thing’s probably handmade- found a bunch on YouTube (Google ad parody), tho most don’t seem to be political, much like the Der Untergang parodies.
They are clever, but they lack the demented genius of the “demon sheep” ad, or the surrealist minimalism of the Mike Gravel “Rock” ad.
In response to another comment. See in context »ncfrommke,
Man, I want to agree with you on the “demented genius,” because it is dementedly brilliant, to be sure. If only I knew for certain the makers of that “demon sheep” ad were actually conscious of how good-awful it is. My hunch is they probably just thought it was good-good.
I had never seen that Mike Gravel video until just now. How insane is that guy? “surrealist minimalism” is right on. Reminds me of some weird take on a Maya Deren film. Though I suspect we may be giving these guys waaaay too much credit…
In response to another comment. See in context »I probably meant “genius” in the Ed Wood sense, but I admit nothing. As for the Gravel ad, he had no budget and a couple film-school undergrads- the ad was their attempt at a no-$ viral video. I guess it worked, sort of.
In response to another comment. See in context »Speaking of great political campaign videos… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vejA3OSlSwA&feature=related