Everyone's Olympics ads are weak

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Watching the Olympic ad war...

Both sets of ads have the same goal--shaping perceptions of Obama. Looking at the two sets of ads it is easy to deduce which side has more money.

McCain's ads are crudely produced and confusing, but do attract some attention because they have a sinister/menacing tone, unlike most TV ads. The attacks are so oblique and at odds with the imagery that its hard to know whether they hit the target.

Obama's ads are so slick and inoffensive they're instant tune-outs... they seem like those corporate image ads one sees for GE, Dupont and ADM. The corporate identity ad genre exists to create a warm feeling toward an entity that is presumptively distrusted and that's the identified image vulnerability being addressed so I understand the rationale, but it feels a little diffuse for a 100 day political campaign.

I think that both sides would do better with "Candidate: apply directly to the forehead!"

(In the 1950s movie theaters tested whether single-frame subliminal inserts of a cool, delicious Coca-Cola made people buy more Coke at the concession stand. There was a mild correlation suggesting the subliminal might have some effect. But what had a BIG unmistakable effect was just saying, "Hey, buy a Coke." It is easy to outsmart yourselves in advertising.)