Celebritology
It appears that the McCain campaign's new strategy is to portray Barack Obama as a "celebrity" in the sense of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton, someone who sells magazines and attracts crowds but isn't qualified to be president. Indeed, Obama isn't just a run of the mill celebrity, according to McCain's latest television ad, he's "the biggest celebrity in the world."
This strikes me as a bizarre strategy for a number of reasons. First, as a factual matter, Obama clearly isn't a "celebrity" in the sense that the McCain campaign is implying. He's not someone who achieved fame outside of politics and then tried to translate that into a political career. In other words, he's not Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzenegger (someone should ask McCain whether he thinks they were qualified). To the contrary, to the extent Obama is famous now, it is solely a product of what he's accomplished as a politician. And it's not as if the American people are going to be fooled on this point. They follow celebrities closely and most of them had never heard of Barack Obama until he began running for president.
But putting all that aside, what makes the McCain campaign think that this particular line of attack is going to work? First, if you're not really paying close attention to the ad (or if you have the sound off), what you take away is an image of Obama speaking in front of massive adoring crowds waiving American flags. Second, even if you do pay attention to the ad, it seems to me that it doesn't really help McCain. Negative ads like this are primarily aimed at low information voters, people who haven't really formed opinions of the candidates. But if you don't know much about Obama, you're likely to be struck most by the claim in the ad that he is now "the biggest celebrity in the world." That's likely to peak people's curiosity. If I didn't know much about the guy, I would want to know what it is about him that has made him such a phenomenon. Why is he so beloved by so many people? How did he go from some guy I'd never heard of to "biggest celebrity in the world"?
And finally, even if this ad works as intended and makes people think of Obama as some sort of vapid celebrity, what exactly does that accomplish? All it will do is set the bar lower for Obama as we move into the major general election events, such as the convention speech and the debates. If people think Obama is Paris Hilton, they're going to be blown away by his debate performance. To some degree, this is what happened with Ronald Reagan in 1980. When he showed up at the first debate and was able to hold his own with the sitting President of the United States, he instantly dispelled many people's concerns and ended up coasting to victory. If McCain continues down this track, he'll be setting up Obama for the same kind of finish.
This strikes me as a bizarre strategy for a number of reasons. First, as a factual matter, Obama clearly isn't a "celebrity" in the sense that the McCain campaign is implying. He's not someone who achieved fame outside of politics and then tried to translate that into a political career. In other words, he's not Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzenegger (someone should ask McCain whether he thinks they were qualified). To the contrary, to the extent Obama is famous now, it is solely a product of what he's accomplished as a politician. And it's not as if the American people are going to be fooled on this point. They follow celebrities closely and most of them had never heard of Barack Obama until he began running for president.
But putting all that aside, what makes the McCain campaign think that this particular line of attack is going to work? First, if you're not really paying close attention to the ad (or if you have the sound off), what you take away is an image of Obama speaking in front of massive adoring crowds waiving American flags. Second, even if you do pay attention to the ad, it seems to me that it doesn't really help McCain. Negative ads like this are primarily aimed at low information voters, people who haven't really formed opinions of the candidates. But if you don't know much about Obama, you're likely to be struck most by the claim in the ad that he is now "the biggest celebrity in the world." That's likely to peak people's curiosity. If I didn't know much about the guy, I would want to know what it is about him that has made him such a phenomenon. Why is he so beloved by so many people? How did he go from some guy I'd never heard of to "biggest celebrity in the world"?
And finally, even if this ad works as intended and makes people think of Obama as some sort of vapid celebrity, what exactly does that accomplish? All it will do is set the bar lower for Obama as we move into the major general election events, such as the convention speech and the debates. If people think Obama is Paris Hilton, they're going to be blown away by his debate performance. To some degree, this is what happened with Ronald Reagan in 1980. When he showed up at the first debate and was able to hold his own with the sitting President of the United States, he instantly dispelled many people's concerns and ended up coasting to victory. If McCain continues down this track, he'll be setting up Obama for the same kind of finish.
posted by A.L. at 9:26 PM
5 Comments:
Astute as usual, AL. Here's another reason I think the ad won't work. The biggest fear older and working-class whites have of Obama is that he is an unknown, strange, different and therefore scary quantity with a foreign sounding name. Placing him in with Britney and Paris may make him seem vacuous but also familiar and harmless (just another American celeb)... even Oprah-like.
The ad absolutely will work. It is aimed at the "low information voter", which constitutes a majority of voters, they are not paying attention, they will see the crowds, but what they will register is the "Is he ready to lead" part.
As to your last part about the convention speech and debates... They won't be watching.
These are the voters that elected George W. Bush. Twice.
What I think the ad is trying to do is push for a backlash against Obama like has been seen for both Britney and Paris. Both of these celebrities had their time in the media spotlight but that was soon followed by a public backlash and hatred of them because everywhere you turned there was some mention of their latest escaped. The McCain campaign chose well when they went with Britney and Paris to compare to Obama, because the media is following Obama's every move the public is being oversaturated with Obama news and soon people will become sick of hearing his name. Obviously those of us who support Obama wont see it this way but the undecided voters and the "low information voters" will.
it's surely the the most surreally stupid and juvenile campaign ad ever.
It makes one wonder what ideas the McCain camp is currently rejecting...
Fade in: same images of Obama speaking before adoring throngs...
VO: "Barack Obama. He just thinks he's cool because he probably has a big penis..."
more shots of ecstatic crowds and waiving American flags.
VO: "Barack Obama...F*ck him and big black dick."
'I'm John McCain and I approved this message.'
Brilliant response from Obama: "We want to have a serious debate. But so far, we've been hearing about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I do have to ask my opponent: is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what the election is about? Is that worthy of the American people? Even the media has pointed out...that McCain has fallen back into ... predictable political attacks and demonstratively false statements... Spending all this time talking about me instead of talking about what he's going to do. That's not going to lower your gas prices. That's's not going...to help you find a job if it's been shipped overseas."
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