For my third to last class I’m looking at the media and political campaigns. So among the topics discussed will be the Willie Horton ad and the recent ad run against Harold Ford.
Horton:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/EC9j6Wfdq3o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Ford:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/kkiz1_d1GsA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
I always thought the Ford ad was mean to paint Ford as a “liberal†because he was running a “I Love Jesus†campaign doing ads in his church and quoting the bible on the campaign trail. That’s why they day the playboy bunny and the porn producer were in the ad. No one ever mentions the porn producer in the ad. I just thought it was about porn and playboy bunnies in a conservative state in the bible belt.
I guess the thing that surprised me was how tame and inoffensive the Willie Horton ad seemed, compared to the stuff I saw all the time in the last couple elections. Have political ads just gotten nastier over time?
there isn’t as much stuff going on. to me it hit the same notes though. what surprises me is that when the ad was out there were few people willing to call it what it was. a few years later even the person responsible for the ad acknowledged that it was racist.
What people don’t seem to address is the fact that even though these political commercials were blatantly racist, there were also quite successful if you examine the election results for both candidates. If Obama becomes a truly serious threat (wins in Iowa and New Hampshire) we are going to see something 100 times worse than Horton or Ford.
They were only successful because they weren’t challenged…and Ford only lost by a tiny tiny amount. I do not foresee anything similar happening to Obama for two reasons:
1. Obama is much more willing to fight these types of ads.
2. The political climate benefits democrats and I don’t see the use of this type of ad “100 times worse” doing anything other than turning off voters.
Implicit Ads…Willie Horton vs. Playboy Ford http://t.co/cooUNZGe
From the Archives: Implicit Ads…Willie Horton vs. Playboy Ford http://t.co/cooUNZGe