Obamamercial

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: October 29, 2008

I just got done watching Barack Obama’s 30-minute television ad/infomercial.

As a television production, I thought it was exceptionally done. It was full of striking photography, sweeping landscapes and beautiful colors; it was paced almost perfectly, and it was treated with an even hand that brought it thoughtful balance.

There was one scene that stood out like a sore thumb, and that was when Obama and his wife were playing cards around the table with their daughters. That scene was cheesier than Velveeta.

As a political piece, I thought it was solid enough. Obama did a good job of putting his proposals into terms the average voter can understand. But it may be the campaign’s decision to use real people as illustrations of Obama’s arguments about why we need those policies that makes the production a political winner: People will forget policy details. But they remember other people.

Think about it. If you watched the program, take a minute and think about how many policy pieces Obama mentioned. How specifically do you remember them? For example, do you remember what he said he would do about the transition to more fuel-efficient cars? Or do you just remember that he mentioned something about fuel-efficient cars?

Now, take a minute and think about the people who were spotlighted over the 25 or so minutes of the taped portion of the program. I’ll bet you remember more of them—and their issues.

The Obamamercial had three parts: The “I-know-what-I’m-doing” portion, where Obama discussed his proposals; the “You-can-trust-him, he’s-a-good-guy” portion, where other elected officials (and one former military officer) vouched for his credibility and readiness to be president, and the “Look-at-all-these-excited-people” portion, the conclusion at the live rally in Florida.

Maybe I was the only one who noticed, but I was struck by the sign of an almost all-white first seven minutes or so of the program. There were a couple of black and Latino people in the first few minutes, but they were almost never featured and remained exclusively in the background.

Of course, Obama did spotlight an elderly black couple from Ohio and an Hispanic-American woman and her family in Albuquerque, N.M. But for the most part, the faces—for example, in Obama’s in-the-round discussion about pensions—were a sea of white. It was as if he was trying to say, “Midwestern white folks: I am one of you.“

If I had any other nitpick, it would be the way the taped program transitioned to the live rally in Florida. The taped program was a carefully crafted, highly personal experience; Obama was speaking directly into the camera, from candidate to voter, as he made his case. The rally turned that on its head. Suddenly, viewers were competing for Obama’s attention with thousands of Floridians in a noisy, cavernous arena; since Obama was speaking from a teleprompter and playing to the arena crowd, the competition was no contest.

Anyone else out there watch the Obamamercial? What did you think?