Thursday, October 7, 2010

Most ineffectual political ad of the week




This is kind of an odd ad, isn't it? Sponsored by the Republican Senatorial Committee and running in West Virginia, it doesn't mention any candidate they suggest supporting, only one they oppose - Obama, who is "messing things up". It's not even all that harsh on the Democrat in the race, Joe Manchin, who's "not bad as Governor", although if sent to Washington would likely do "whatever Obama wants". Still, these gentlemen all agree that Joe is such a valuable resource that they need to keep him in West Virginia. And seeing as how the ad never mentions the GOP candidate, I don't know why I should bother either.

The ad has already been pulled from both broadcast and YouTube after Politico ran an amusing piece of fluff about the casting call for it. To quote: "We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks."
 
Very nice way to describe your target audience, as hicks. I'll let you in on a little secret - many people don't mind the label 'blue collar', and there are plenty of folks who will proudly describe themselves as 'rednecks', but 'hicks'? Thems fightin words. Except nobody in the ad says anything like 'thems fightin words' because nobody in this ad has any discernable accent at all. 

These guys look far too clean cut and well scrubbed, not even a hint of stubble on two of them and a nicely manicured beard on the third. And funny, the restaurant doesn't make you think of state at all, which shouldn't be a surprise, since it was shot at the Oregon Diner in South Philly, about as un-West Virginian environment as you're likely to find.

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