Anyone seen the McCain and Obama tv ads running during the Olympics?
Interesting post on one of my favorite websites (FiveThirtyEight.com) about the difference in the ad messages being shown during the Olympics, basically calling McCain a grinch who is stealing the Olympics.
Here we have a worldwide event that is intended to celebrate the US’ accomplishments and build national pride, yet John McCain is running a version of his "Celebrity" ad attacking Obama.
Conversely, Obama is running his "Hands" ad which is positive, visionary and patriotic.
The blogger writes:
Obama’s Olympic “Hands”
ad celebrates American ingenuity and runs for 15 seconds before you
have any idea it’s even a political ad. There’s Michael Phelps setting
world records, there’s Morgan Freeman’s powerful voiceover in Visa ads
celebrating the human condition, then there’s a guy telling you how dangerous his political opponent is. Way to keep the mood going. Grinch, indeed.
I have to tend to agree with this assessment. McCain seems to be taking a dangerous road of being almost anti-patriotic with his ads. The Olympics are on, the US is winning medals and the best he can come up with is Obama is the "biggest celebrity in the world" and is "dangerous to your family"?
Isn’t it almost ironic that the Olympics is about making celebrities — Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, Michael Phelps — and now McCain is attacking Obama for being one in the same?
McCain has been able to close the gap in the national polls the past couple of weeks with this line of attack, but I wonder if it will still work during the Olympics — I tend to doubt it.
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