Biggest boondoggle (doggie?) in political ad history--Scary puppies ad!

[DrBB]

As Atrios reports, they showed the new RNC "Wolves" ad on Crossfire, with much scary buildup about how well it had focus-grouped and how devastating it was going to be for Kerry, and when they came back from the clip, the studio audience was, well, er, um

laughing.

I watched the thing and I gotta say, it looked like a Nature Conservancy ad to me. Pretty trees 'n' stuff, and they overcranked the wolves, which is what you do when you want 'em to look elegant and graceful in a nature documentary. Then the big wind-up: happy doggies come running toward the trainer to get their treat! Yum Yums! Woof!

For my part, all I could think of was Count Floyd. "Verrrrry scary! OOohhh! Look out now!"

I gotta say, this looks like the stupidest move I've ever seen in a political campaign. "Scare" ad? You gotta be kidding. People LIKE wolves. And if ever a party left themselves wide open for a comeback. Somebody on Atrios's comments suggested an ad showing a guy on the couch watching the Bush ad and breaking up in laughter. Wife's voice from the other room: "What's so funny dear?" "Nuttin, honey. Just Bush cryin wolf again."

Must be a million ways to play it.

God what a bunch of dumbasses. I thought Rove was supposed to be good at this stuff.

[Bluebear]

1. And they held this "weapon" back for five months?

Ha ha ha ha.

[aquart]

4. Good grief. Is this the October Surprise????????

[aquart]

17. They've been sitting on this for 5 months?

All the while thinking it's a nuclear weapon???

[grace0418]

33. I know!!! It's hilarious.

It looks like BushCo's insistence that everyone around them be sniveling sycophants finally caught up to them. I can just imagine the "focus group" they got together. I'm sure they all unanimously declared the ad "powerful" once they were told to say so.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Heh, Rove lost the last election he ran........n/t

[DrBB]

5. Now that's a good point

Did you see Matthew Yglesias's blog about Rove's ineptitude a few days ago? Guy's definitely overrated.

[Eye and Monkey]

3. I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's -

and his hair was perfect! Ha!

Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London

[aquart]

6. What does "overcrank" mean?

[DrBB]

15. Double speed on the camera

Produces slow motion on playback.

[Beetwasher]

7. Makes Me Want To Donate To Sierra Club and then Go Vote For Kerry!

:shrug:

[kostya]

8. It was pathetic. I showed it to my wife and she just shrugged. Then

I showed her the ostrich ad on the dnc site and she LOL!

[liberalmuse]

9. Wolves are beloved, now.

They've gotten a very good reputation since the New Age movement and Animal Planet. They should've used Barney.

[txindy]

24. You startled me for a moment!

When you said "Barney," I forgot all about the dog and thought of a big purple dinosaur skipping through the forest singing preschool songs.:silly:

The weekend is here -- obviously just in time for me! ;)

[RevCheesehead]

29. Oh, Nooooooooooooo! He looks - FRENCH!!!!

[txindy]

40. ROFL!!!!

I feel kind of bad for poor little Scottie Barney, though. When Junior loses, he'll be spending more time at home with Barney. Well, marginally more time. With all of his vacation days, he's home most of the time, anyway! ;)

[olddem43]

10. Rover is running out of tricks -

Only 10 days left.

[Atman]

11. Repubs and dems view nature differently

Here is short rundown of the Wolf ad...it makes perfect sense. I think of my brother the republican, who thinks "camping" means a three star hotel with no room service. He lives in the woods in NH, and complains that the bears come near his house, as if THEY are encroaching on his space instead of the other way around. Anyway, my friend's post from another board....

---

I wonder if they use a varied enough focus group when screening ads.

Maybe Republicans see wolves and become afraid, but most people I know see wolves and think beautiful. Add Republicans to the mix and we do become afraid -- for the wolves.

And my first thought on hearing the sexy, foreign accented voice, was -- "Oh, you outsource ad production, too!"

[ithacan]

12. here's the perfect print-ad response to it

from bigpath.net:

[DrBB]

14. Nice--that was quick

Gosh what friendly fluffy looking wolfies they are, too.

[BillZBubb]

20. Cried wolf!!!! I love it!!!!

That is the PERFECT response.

[DrBB]

13. Musta seen a hundred bikers wearing that timber wolf t-shirt

You know the one? Very air-brushed, romantic wolf thingy? also painted on the sides of bike-toting RVs, vans, and other ultra-mainstreamy mid-America type venues?

Aren't those the people the dimWit supposedly appeals to? Maybe not anymore, huh?

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Anyone have a link to the "puppy" ad?

:evilgrin:

[DrBB]

18. It's on the Bush site--here y'go

link

[yardwork]

19. It is hilarious. I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair

The dogs, er, wolves look really sweet - which is what real wolves are like anyway. Nobody is afraid of wolves anymore. Sharks eat people. Alligators and crocodiles eat people. Even bears sometimes eat people.

I don't think a wolf has ever eaten a person in the history of the world.

[pocoloco]

21. ...been reading too much Jack London??

[MrBenchley]

42. It might be the worst political ad I've ever seen....

I thought Little Ricky Lazio had set the bar so low nobody could squirm under it, but this is worse than any of his, because obviously so many dollars was wasted on it.

As somebody on the internet said, It sums up this misbegotten bunch of hacks, crooks, and crazies perfectly: "All we have is fear itself."

[RevolutionStartsNow]

22. It makes me want to

preserve all that beautiful wilderness, and pet those fuzzy wolves!

Which stupid focus groups told them this was an effective ad? LOL.

[Kingshakabobo]

45. Makes me want to go camping n/t

[gordianot]

23. I have seen them in the wild.

An awesome sight, never to be forgotten, beautiful animals. Not scary.

[fishwax]

25. I'm george bush and I approved this message

to me that was the funniest part. It's not a very good ad, overall, but after all that fakey melodrama with nature scenes and baby wolves, to have * on the phone spitting out the required phrase as quickly as possible just made me laugh.

This ad would have been better if it had been a 527 ad, but it probably still would have sucked.

[chaska]

26. President Bush you've cried wolf once too often.

[mfritz]

27. Terrorist wolves

Watch out for the terrorist wolves. The leader and mastermind is Osama bin Lickin.

[robbedvoter]

28. W doing hard work at the end got me laughing out loud!

[Francine Frensky]

37. Was he phoning his mommy? Reminded me of Kerry's lifeline jokes

Seriously, my first though was: who's he calling for help?

[atre]

30. Kerry was endorsed by "Teen Wolf"

Michael J. Fox.

Maybe some inventive ad-man can come up with some way to use that.

[NAO]

31. "Crying Wolf" is the "Furious George" of our time (this week)

[Crunchy Frog]

32. Please click on my wolf picture

to learn the truth about this ad.:)

[RevCheesehead]

43. That is just too good to keep to yourself!!!

Ahroooooooooooooooooooo!

[saccheradi]

46. AAAWWWW!!!

I LOVE THAT!!!

can we get them to do camios for a fuzzy good feeling Kerry ad about saving the world from destruction???

[Abelman]

34. I'm telling ya

We change the mascot from the donkey to a wolf, the DNC and Kerry supporters go nuts the next ten days with wolf stuff, and successfully cram this ad's crappiness down the Pug's throats. Talk about a backfire.

I do love wolves.

[saccheradi]

48. With you 100%!!!!

[lfs5]

35. Gwen Ifel-Washington Week

"Scared me. This is pretty tough stuff..."

WHAT am I missing? Why would focus groups class this ad as powerful? And to make matters worse (or better), they've hyped it so much that I think a wolf would actually have to jump through the screen into your den to produce the effect they led you to anticipate.

But then, what do I know? I think wolves are glorious creatures!

[LynnTheDem]

38. Ifel is a sheep

Of course wolves frighten her.

DNC should do a "terrorist horses" ad, scare the hell out of bush. :D

[txindy]

44. Her pal, Condi, told her to say that. Or told her she should act scared.

Whatever. :eyes:

[LynnTheDem]

36. George W bush; terrorist

All he's done the past 2 years is try to terrorize the American people.

His BASE may be cowards; the rest of us are not. So QUIT trying to TERRORIZE AMERICA, bush!

[joanski01]

39. I love wolves.

I think they are beautiful. I have a wolf picture hanging in my living room. I didn't understand that wolf ad they played on Crossfire. It sure wasn't scarey. What do wolves have to do with terrorists anyway?

[MrBenchley]

41. Hilariously, it's "Wolf Awareness Week"

and conservation groups are busily pointing out that wolves are important elements of the ecosystem, and encouraging wolf conservation programs....

http://www.onlypunjab.com/real/fullstory-newsID-7714.html

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=14586&ntpid=1

"WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Bush-Cheney campaign released a political ad, "Wolves" in which the endangered species' image is used to portray fear. Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen offered the following statement:
"The Bush-Cheney campaign's most recent bizarre political commercial, 'Wolves,' misuses the imagery of wolves to try to instill fear in the voting public.
How ironic for George Bush, who has been the most anti-wildlife president ever, to turn to the very symbol of endangered wildlife in America -- the wolf -- for assistance in perpetuating his administration. Wolf recovery in parts of America, no thanks to this administration, represents one of the great success stories of wildlife conservation in this country. This is the last day of Wolf Awareness Week, and a chief purpose is to help educate the public that the myths about wolves being threats to humans, are just that, myths. But the Bush campaign is using that fictitious stereotype in a manner that instills false fear.
President Bush's Department of the Interior is proposing to remove endangered species protections that the wolf needs to continue to survive. In fact there are lawsuits pending against the Bush Interior Department that challenge their anti-wolf actions across the country. Also, even though petitioned to do so, the Bush Interior Department refuses to use the Federal Airborne Hunting Act to stop the outrageous and unethical shooting of wolves from airplanes in Alaska. "

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041022/dcf047_1.html

[RevCheesehead]

49. Thanks for the link to the Capitol Times!

I had forgotten what a gem that paper is! And their website is far preferable to the WI State Journal - much easier to navigate.

(And what's with the Journal-Sentinel? Their web pages take forever to load! Too much advertisement!)

[MrBenchley]

50. Any time...the editorial hit the nail on the head...

"Yet, if this country does resemble trembling, helpless prey, it's Bush's own actions - his inept homeland security measures and unwarranted Iraq war - that have put us in such a state of vulnerability."

Soembody said about this inept ad: FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." The GOP is reduced to: "The only thing we have...is fear itself."

[Iceburg]

53. and "the nationwide annual event originated in Wisconsin"

Canadians for Wolves (and Kerry)

[CAcyclist]

54. Finally! We are going to start talking about the environment!

The thing that links Demos and Repubs the closest is the environment and that hasn't been on the radar screen until now.

This ad has just given all the environmental groups the hook they've been needing to get the mainstream media to hear them.

[scarletwoman]

47. Wolves not taking this lying down -- "Wolfpacksfortruth"

http://www.wolfpacksfortruth.org/

We are not terrorists!

;-)

[BlueCollar]

51. kick

just had to...

http://www.wolfpacksfortruth.org /

the website is too damn funny...

[MaggieSwanson]

52. ROFL

This is too good. Emailing the link out to everyone I know...