sagawizard (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sagawizard) wrote,@ 2008-08-19 10:14:00 |
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TARGET's best political ad?
...so I'm making an omelet this morning (which required not only the breaking of a few eggs, but the slicing of a few tomatoes) and listening to the radio, and on comes this really well-done ad in which a suburban family talks, in Leave-it-to-Beaver 1950s style, about how they've been saving their pennies, and how the dad just got a big bonus check, so it's time to splurge, etc etc, except you find out they're talking about doctor's visits. Little Johnny is selling lemonade in the hopes of saving up for allergy shots. Dad is going to spend his bonus check on a doctor's visit. Little Janie has been walking by the glass case dreaming of saving up for vaccinations. And it's all done in this happy-happy "can do" style, which drives the irony home harder.
Sounds like a perfect Obama ad, doesn't it, arguing for national healthcare to help out working families?
Nope. It's from Target. Advertising low prices on over the counter medicines.
It's a really good at that does what Obama has been failing to - speak to the anxieties that unite Americans. Last time I checked, Obama was busy defending his "willingness to confront evil" and being excoriated for not being as direct about it as McCain. It's exactly what I was afraid of, Obama getting sucked into a "No, no, I hate Al Qaeda even MORE than you!" kind of debate, while failing to capitalize on the fertile ground of discontent about real things the last 8 years have laid out for him.
The Target PR people were brilliant in co-opting this. The solution to your problems doesn't require political change, say the corporations. It just requires finding the best buy at the best location, which we provide!
If this capitalist/libertarian wet-dream were true, then why has every unregulated industry (energy companies, mortgage lenders, defense contractors) run itself into bankruptcy, screwed over thousands of people, and eventually had to be bailed out by the government in an act of grand (if grossly unequitable) socialism? I'm supposed to trust freakin' TARGET with my health?
Well, apparently so, because all Obama cares about is how tough he can look speaking about Iran or Russian or whatever-stan we've been told is our real enemy this week. If I were him, I'd hire the same ad agency Target did. Maybe that VP nominee he's been teasing us with will be Sam Wall of Walmart...
- SW
(unrepentently swiped my new LJ icon fromsabbathunter)
...so I'm making an omelet this morning (which required not only the breaking of a few eggs, but the slicing of a few tomatoes) and listening to the radio, and on comes this really well-done ad in which a suburban family talks, in Leave-it-to-Beaver 1950s style, about how they've been saving their pennies, and how the dad just got a big bonus check, so it's time to splurge, etc etc, except you find out they're talking about doctor's visits. Little Johnny is selling lemonade in the hopes of saving up for allergy shots. Dad is going to spend his bonus check on a doctor's visit. Little Janie has been walking by the glass case dreaming of saving up for vaccinations. And it's all done in this happy-happy "can do" style, which drives the irony home harder.
Sounds like a perfect Obama ad, doesn't it, arguing for national healthcare to help out working families?
Nope. It's from Target. Advertising low prices on over the counter medicines.
It's a really good at that does what Obama has been failing to - speak to the anxieties that unite Americans. Last time I checked, Obama was busy defending his "willingness to confront evil" and being excoriated for not being as direct about it as McCain. It's exactly what I was afraid of, Obama getting sucked into a "No, no, I hate Al Qaeda even MORE than you!" kind of debate, while failing to capitalize on the fertile ground of discontent about real things the last 8 years have laid out for him.
The Target PR people were brilliant in co-opting this. The solution to your problems doesn't require political change, say the corporations. It just requires finding the best buy at the best location, which we provide!
If this capitalist/libertarian wet-dream were true, then why has every unregulated industry (energy companies, mortgage lenders, defense contractors) run itself into bankruptcy, screwed over thousands of people, and eventually had to be bailed out by the government in an act of grand (if grossly unequitable) socialism? I'm supposed to trust freakin' TARGET with my health?
Well, apparently so, because all Obama cares about is how tough he can look speaking about Iran or Russian or whatever-stan we've been told is our real enemy this week. If I were him, I'd hire the same ad agency Target did. Maybe that VP nominee he's been teasing us with will be Sam Wall of Walmart...
- SW
(unrepentently swiped my new LJ icon from
sabbathunter)
