Thursday, October 21, 2010

Best political ad since...

Despite disagreeing wildly with the content, this really is one of the best political commercials of the decade:


In fact, I can't remember an ad I liked more than this one. As James Fallows notes, it evokes a foreign menace so pitch-perfectly, not as a threat in themselves but as the beneficiaries of mistakes we make ourselves, that it's remarkable for that fact alone. But it's also the production values, the art direction, the vision of the future 20 years from now (I want a future iPad!)...

Seriously, what was the last political ad this great? I really can't think of one, and I suspect that's because of Citizens United - CAGW was able to spend God knows how much money on it, and what they got was expensive, high commercial art. Since money's always been such a tight constraint on political organizations, they've always had to get cheapo commercials, with tacky, unoriginal visuals, cheesy music and voiceovers, and no imagination.

The artistry of political ads is, of course, not quite worth the further corporate capture that Citizens provided our democracy. But I guess it's a nice side benefit.

1 comment:

Matt Casey said...

Wow, that is an amazing ad. I'm sold!