Politics as Unusual

by Steve Badertscher


I can’t wait for next Tuesday to come and go. And it has nothing to do with who wins or loses, but everything to do with ending the madness of political advertising for awhile. The sheer volume of political ads has been annoying, at best. But what I’ve noticed with each passing year is how negative, bitter and untruthful the messages have become. While watching a ball game the other evening I was subjected to dozens of consecutive commercials, none of which ever mentioned one redeeming quality about the candidate sponsoring the spot…only negative accusations and spins about their opponent’s shortcomings.

I started thinking, how different things would be if companies took that approach to their advertising? Instead of touting your safety advancements and track record as an auto maker, for example, Volvo might dredge up a compromising and unflattering photo of a top level executive at Toyota, and add a few strategic sound bites (taken out of context, of course) that when edited together proclaim “safety is an expensive proposition and cuts into our profit margins” and attribute it to him. That video might dissolve into a gruesome photo from a crash scene of their competitor’s car all mangled up with large graphics touting the number of drivers/passengers killed while driving the competitor’s car that year, etc. Taking the tone of current political ads, there probably would be some reference made to Pearl Harbor.

Sickening? Yes. Absurd? You betcha. But I guess that is the same way I feel about the vast majority of the current political “advertisements” (A better description would be propaganda).

What’s your take on this?

Flickr Photo Credit: Theresa Thompson