Everyone knows political campaigns can get pretty ugly. It's expected. But some are wondering if John McCain's camp crossed the line with a recent ad attacking Barack Obama's tax policies.
As you can see, the shading of the commercial turns the word "change" into "hang,' which could be read as a not-so-subtle suggestion and reference to America's less progressive past. You know, the days when black men could be lynched for whistling at a white woman and the such. McCain's camp didn't deny the claim, simply saying, "We're not even validating such an outrageous and preposterous claim with a comment." A political type who apparently knows of these things insists McCain's camp must have seen this, saying, "People spend hours and hours editing political ads, I really don't see how this could go unnoticed by the editors."
We weren't sure what to make of this whole thing. Could someone really be so nasty – and that's a perfect word – and racist to intentionally put the word "hang" over Barack Obama's head. Perhaps it was a fade-in shot, we thought, but a look at the video proves that's not the case. Even the female narrator's use of "celebrity" Barack Obama versus "we" sounds insidious, as if Obama's some roving beast looking to invade America's picket fences. Those fences, of course, are traditionally white.
So you know what finally convinced us that the McCain camp did this deliberately? The commercial is called "Higher."
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It's pretty easy to see they put a black blur over the 'C' and cut the 'E' off the end. In the very next frame, the black blur is moved over to the left where the 'C' would have been visible had it still been on-screen.
So, yes, I'd say it was deliberate.
That old man needs to go golfing and stay golfing. What a hateful piece of shit.
Does McCain have the KKK running his ad campaign? There can be no justification for this video depiction other than to stir racial hatred. Someone should lose their job, McCain should apologize and the FCC should investigate. But the problem is that if the Obama campaign says anything about this, they will be accused of being too sensitive and playing the race card.
This is Rove at his best (and worst).
That ad is totally meant to work in a subliminal way, and the audience for it is a perfect sponge.
Racism is powerful, and very much alive.
mccain's just trying to appeal to his basest base.
EMB, you didn't go far enough – Mr. McCain is not trying to appeal to his basest base – he IS the basest of his base. He knows exactly what he's doing. By running ads that are intentionally and undeniably racist, the ad gets more "plays" through the news media – "plays" for which he doesn't have to purchase air time. Mr. McCain and the Republican machine are vomitatious and they ARE what is wrong with America.
I have to agree with this article. I work in graphics animation as well as flash ad work, and I watch each of my videos hundreds and hundreds of times before they're allowed to be seen by the people that then watch them dozens of times before they're sent to the legal dept to be approved, then sent BACK to me to edit, and then the whole process over again. Someone along the way MUST have seen this and as also previously pointed out, the blur over the C is bigger and more opaque than anything else in the ad. They have no way of saying that this wasn't either intentional or over-seen.
Whenever they won't comment it means it's true. how hard is it for them to say "No"? But they didn't do that, they refused to comment which means a big fat "YES"!
The OBTRUSIVE, and annoying, black blur was there since the beginning. It was intentional.
You people are insane. The ad states very clearly that Obama is going to raise your taxes. You have to be a paranoid freak to get anything else from it.
No.10 jason,
"You people"?
I am pretty sure the 9 people who have posted before you are not all of the same colour, gender, sexuality, etc…
You probably meant "you great thinking people". One doesn't have to be for Obama to clearly see the overt racism of the piece.
Read No.7's post, it should clear things up.
What a monster. I *know* Bush, Cheney and Rove will toast in Hell one day (not soon enough if you ask me!) and Libby will get to Heaven if he repents. But McCain is just an evil Bush admin. Mini-Me. How repulsive.
If you think this one is bad, wait until their next one where they Photoshop the "A" into a "U" to stimulate the fears of folks like certain racist asshats on here that black men really do have bigger dicks than them!
Jason, are you f!@#$ blind? Go back and look at the ad again. The shading shifts throughout the commerical and frankly does not even add anything to the message. How many commercials do you see where better than 1/3 of the screen is intentionally blacked-out? That's valuable retail space to get your message out, and this was distracting. That is, distractive enough for the dumb asses whose brains don't quite register too quickly so that even they would notice it. This is dispicable and for once it's the media's responsiblity to call them out on it. We'll see this evening.
Wait – I thought this was a gay blog?
With regard to the rest of the ad's content, I still don't get the whole "experience" thing, especially since neither Obama nor McCain have ever had experience as president, and experience doesn't make or break a candidate.
I get the impression that Obama is "Not ready to lead" and "John McCain is ready to boss you all around."
Why is this sooo not surprising??
I, too, thought/hoped this was a gay blog. :-/
It's inane to think that the blacking out was NOT deliberate. I'm an art director and have been doing TV ads for many years. You don't create a shadow like that and have it come in and out on different scenes. It's not attractive. It adds nothing to the message. It hides space that can be used to "sell". The only reason was to hide the C. The only reason it was added to other scenes was to hide McCain's evil intent and claim it was simply a "design" choice.
It looks like CHANG to me not HANG.
i smell fear..
They have posted Gov Paylon hung and Senator McCain hung nothing was said. Now its Obamas turn to get hung and I bet the news people will go wild.