Home › Blogs › Josh Kahn's blog ›

Why Didn’t the RNC Run the “Celebrity” Ad?

Submitted by Josh Kahn on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 11:22
in

Since the McCain campaign released their Celebrity spot yesterday and taken a more aggressive tone overall there’s been a huge amount of second guessing from the pundit class and politicos like John Weaver and Mike Murphy. The gist of their critique has been that McCain is diminishing his own image by going too negative too early to the exclusion of his own message.

How to attack the opponent without looking “mean” is a classic campaign problem and there’s a classic answer – when possible, use surrogates.  The RNC could easily have run the Celebrity spot instead of the McCain campaign itself and it would have shielded McCain personally from some criticism.  

The points still would have gone on TV, the RNC press shop would have still pushed the message and McCain personally would have had more distance.  That tactic wouldn’t have deflected criticism completely but it would have helped a lot, especially in the press.

The major downside to this strategy is that an ad coming out of the RNC has less earned media pizzazz, but the spot itself is sensational enough that they still should have been able to gin up nearly as much coverage as the McCain campaign themselves.

Overall, even though I share a lot of Murphy’s concerns (and the one Marc Ambinder’s anonymous strategist outlines) I’ve been heartened by the new strategy.  The campaign’s recent moves have shown a willingness to take some risks and have successfully injected the campaign’s message back into the press.  That’s a critical change from the last few months and if they start taking some risky plays to build up McCain himself we’ll have a real chance to win this thing.

5
Your rating: None Average: 5 (2 votes)

Comments

Nice Guys Finish Last

Submitted by Jeff Roberts on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 12:26.

McCain needs to aggressively go after Obama, and not worry about whether or not his "above the fray" image takes a hit.  This election is going to be a referendum on Obama, it's not going to be won by McCain "outclassing" Obama.

The reason why Bush Sr. destroyed Dukakis was he went after him ruthlessly.  His campaign seemed more timid in the '92 election, wanting to be "statesman-like" and suffered as a result.  Dole also made the same mistake with Clinton in '96.

I like the tone McCain has been taking with Obama, and if he keeps up the heat, I think McCain will win.  My biggest concern with McCain getting the nomination was he would not go negative because he still wanted adulation from the liberal MSM.  

Voters every election cycle say they don't want negative ads, but every election cycle since the nation's founding they've worked.  

 

Strategy is good, just need different channel

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 14:33.

Let the RNC put the ad out and its more like a proxy /surrogate attack than a direct one. I think that is a valid point.

 

The reason why Bush Sr. destroyed Dukakis was he went after him ruthlessly.  His campaign seemed more timid in the '92 election, wanting to be "statesman-like" and suffered as a result.  Dole also made the same mistake with Clinton in '96.

I agree completely. A part of the campaign has to be about defining who Obama is. Obama is a far-left Senator with no accomplishments worthy of note except getting elected. The myth that the Axelrod Productions campaign has created on empty rhetoric is phony and it must be challenged and  torn down. The MSM is too much in the tank for Obama to help, so the campaign has to do it.

Obama: Too Extreme, Too Leftwing, Too Inexperienced, Bad Judgement

The Ghost of Lee Atwater

Submitted by texicali on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 17:01.

Someone in the McCain camp needs to come up with a topper to Lee's ad with Dukakis with a helmet on in a tank....that's how you take out Obama

Please

Submitted by Repack Rider on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 19:58.

This ad is embarrassing.  It addresses nothing other than popularity, which one might just suppose is required if one even expects to compete in an election.  Popularity and charisma do nothing to harm anyone's electoral chances, and pointing out that Obama has them invites comparisons to McCain's, which, uh, aren't a good idea.

It makes the people who made the ad look a lot stupider than it makes Obama look.  Has it occurred to anyone to address any of the myriad issues of economy, housing, health care or international relations other than to point out Obama's obvious popularity?

How about a campain that doesn't look as though McCain was running for class president.  Grow up, people, and talk about issues and policy.

Plenty of substance in these ads

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 21:13.

"Troops"

"Pump"

"Jobs for America"

"Colombia Free Trade"

"Purpose"

Plenty of issues in those ads...if you're willing to acknowledge them.

I see words

Submitted by Repack Rider on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 02:26.

I do not see a discussion.  You are making my case for me.  You just give Obama the opportunity to respond with similar one-word "ideas," such as "hope," and "change."  Gee, now that I heard THOSE words, maybe I'll vote for the Big O.

Really, this juvenile attempt at name-calling in the ad is beyond pathetic.  It's almost a statement that the makers do not have any real ideas.

If this is the best the McCain campaign can do, I am not impressed.  I expected something more SENIOR STATESMAN-ish.

McCain keeps making HIS campaign about Obama, when it should be about McCain.  Does anyone remember when McCain was going to take the hight road and avoid negative campaigning?

Me neither.  Let Obama go negative, which demeans him more than McCain, and let McCain talk about his own ideas.

Actually, I thought the Celebrity Ad was just plain dumb

Submitted by lagomorph on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 15:55.

It's not a fun ad, it's not a stirring patriotic ad, it's not an informative ad.  The woman's voice is creepy-whiny, and the timing of it is simply unfortunate.  As Charles Krauthammer pointed out this week on the Special Report panel, when an opponent is already committing political suicide, when his ego makes David Letterman's Top 10 List and the mainstream media have launched columns such as "Arrogance Watch", there was no need to get into the Berlin Speech fiasco unless you're really going to make a seriously hilarious mockery of it.  And that pathetic, whiny woman's voice has simply got to go.  Can't we sex these ads up a little?  Not to mention make them clever and funny.  While I agree with Sean that the issues are spot-on, I agree with Repack that the negative ad in and of itself was basically dumb and will very likely have the opposite effect of attracting undecideds.  Instead of focusing on the serious "is this jacktard fit to lead?" issue, I looked at those two pop-tarts and thought to myself:  WTF???

I gotta take issue. . .

Submitted by Walt Gilbert on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 17:27.

.  .  .with you on that one, Lag-o.  I really don't think the "Celeb" ad was about moving anyone, per se.  I think it was all about lending perspective to the spectacle that is Obama.

I also see it as a pre-emptive strike against the imagery that Obama is hoping to generate from his appearance at the stadium in Colorado.

It really had a lot going for it in terms of creating buzz, drawing Obama into a very humorless posture -- which he maintains even today in his reaction to "The One".  Not to mention that it forced him to throw down the Race Card in July, only to try to draw it back within the same news cycle.

And, finally, it will play very differently to people in the battleground states than it will to people in places where Obama enjoys a sort of natural constituency.  As negative ads go, if you compare it to the ones that people generally use as a standard -- say, the NAACP's James Bird ad, for example -- this is not the kind of monstrosity that will turn people away from the candidate who runs it, nor necessarily will it turn people away from the object of the ad.

What it does is raise just enough doubt in people's minds to dim the aura that Obama has placed around himself and hoped to capitalize on in Denver.  Suddenly, all that adulation is going to look a little suspect, and all the pretty words are going to seem a little less substantive.

Undeniably, this has been McCain's week, and I think the campaign's done a masterful job -- particularly given the fact that they had to deal with some of their earstwhile allies sniping at them in the press from the sidelines.

UPDATE:  It's tough to make the case that a man is both "old and tired" at the same time you're trying to make the case that he's "juvenile and childish".  The ad actually injects a bit of a youth narrative into the McCain campaign by taking an irreverent tone, I think.

 

I still hate that woman's voice

Submitted by lagomorph on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 19:32.

Sex it up, I tell you!  Plus it just had no humor.  It's time to separate serious-as-death NoBama from guy-you'd-love-to-have-a-beer-with McCain.  Speaking of beer, I'm surprised you're not having one right now to celebrate that awesome sit-in today! 

I can't argue with that. . .

Submitted by Walt Gilbert on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 21:30.

. . .at all, though I find the woman's voice less grating than you do.  Of course, I've only heard it through the TV speakers -- not the stereo.  So, maybe I'm missing something.

As for sexing it up and throwing in some humor, it's hard to argue with that.  It wasn't a "perfect" ad, by any means.  I would have left Britney and Paris out of it, and thrown in some of the footage of people swooning at his past events for humor, but then it might have been a tougher transition to the issues raised in it.

With regard to the beer, I'm having one in situ tonight.  Though, tragically, I only have two.  I may have to strap on the Docs and mosh on down to the beer store before closing time.

By the by -- did you happen to get the notification in Facebook where ATR had interns there with cameras today, and they uploaded the footage on YouTube?

http://www.youtube.com/user/taxreformer

Awesome video!!

Submitted by lagomorph on Sat, 08/02/2008 - 22:04.

Thanky kindly! 

I just posted Culberson's QIK links on the post about "missed video opportunity" by Danny Glover (jeez I love that S/N):

here, here and here

When one beer is too many and 24 are not enough, I just reach for a nice jar of Tennessee Smoky Mountain Dew, Dude.  But then...I used to have friends in Gatlinburg once uponna time.  Getcha summa that, then go out and handle a few snakes on Sunday morning, it's all good!   ;-)

Drop the Hammer on Him

Submitted by IrishRep on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 23:05.

The best chance that McCain has is to hit Obama hard early and often.  The offensive should be truthful and it has been so far.  The truth hurts sometimes; but, if the truth doesnt get out there and Obama wins this thing the next four years will be VERY long.   The presidency is not some beauty pagent and a real discussion needs to be had.  If Obama will not talk about the issues that bring the fight to him on the airwaves.