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Subliminal Messaging, or Over-Active Imaginations?
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ShareJuly 18, 2008 5:54 PM
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: There's a longtime tradition in political advertising to look beyond the message to the subtext -- and even to the subliminal.
In that spirit, a veteran Democratic operative offers an interesting observation of the newly released anti-Obama Web video produced by the McCain campaign. The video is an eight-minute montage of sometimes contradictory statements about the Iraq war made by Sen. Barack Obama.
At the very beginning, the title -- “The Obama Iraq Documentary” -- flashes into place in a blaze of orange. And for a single frame -- a tiny fraction of a second -- Obama’s face is framed by the following prominent letters: “a l q D.”
Some caveats: “al qD” is meaningless by itself. The “l” is actually the capital “I” in "Iraq," though in the typeface used in the video, it looks like a lowercase “L.” Other letters -- at either end of the title -- are simultaneously on the screen. And many editing programs do allow randomized letter placement.
But still. . . . For a brief moment, Obama’s face is framed by letters that the brain may want to play with and spell something that does make sense. If you type “al qD” into Google, you get this response: “Did you mean: al qaeda.”
Well -- is that what the McCain campaign meant?
No, said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the admakers used a “text randomizer,” where a computer randomly chose the order in which the letters would appear.
“The idea that it’s in any way done by the campaign intentionally is preposterous,” Rogers said when asked by ABC News whether the campaign meant to draw a link between Obama and al Qaeda.
Rogers added that tens of thousands of people have viewed the video since it was released Thursday afternoon, and no one had asked the campaign about the letters in the beginning of the ad before ABC was in touch.
“It’s so subliminal, even when it’s freeze-framed, it’s incomprehensible,” Rogers said. “We didn’t freeze-frame every frame in an eight-minute video to trouble shoot what liberal-bloggers might attack us for.”
The video was produced by McCain’s ad team, FoxHole Productions. A McCain aide told ABC that it was primarily put together by an editor who had about 48 hours to throw it together in advance of Obama’s foreign trip.
Still, in this era of hyper-analysis -- and in the very week that a non-subtle New Yorker cover was blasted as beyond the bounds of satire -- should something like this have slipped by Team McCain?
As the veteran Democrat notes, every frame of anything put out by a campaign is typically reviewed and triple-checked. This could be carelessness, a bad joke by a too-clever staffer, or inevitable given all the letter combinations that emerge from the immense quantity of video content produced by campaigns these days.
Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for President Bush who is now an ABC News consultant, said something like this should have been caught before it was sent out. He noted that campaigns need to be extra sensitive in the wake of the 2000 Republican National campaign ad attacking Al Gore that was revealed to feature a quick shot of the word “RATS.”
“Part of what you have to do in a campaign is prevent the unintentional problem -- and that’s a problem,” Dowd said of the McCain video. “We know what’s happened with this ever since 2000 -- it’s a problem to do that. It’s either a malpractice problem of somebody who did this, or it’s an oversight problem. I’m much more inclined to think it’s oversight.”
What do you think? An oversight? Meaningless? Or “RATS” part two?
July 18, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan, Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (46)
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Well, I don't think it's "meaningless", it could be "rats".
Posted by: SadStateOfAffairs | Jul 18, 2008 6:29:15 PM
I am not understanding why Obama is dropping like a rock in the POLLS
Posted by: screen door | Jul 18, 2008 6:41:25 PM
Be COOL and vote for Obama. Don't be square. You lug heads.
Posted by: cooly | Jul 18, 2008 6:48:30 PM
what will the repubs try next----however bush and mcbush do look rather strange.maybe they made a deal with satan.
Posted by: rodney | Jul 18, 2008 7:08:44 PM
Republicans play to the worse in society. Fear, innuendo, distortion and out right lies. Business as usual for neo-cons.
Posted by: JR | Jul 18, 2008 7:50:27 PM
They did it on purpose. How do you tell when the neocons are lying??
It's easy. Their lips are moving. Karl rove is their mascot. What ever it takes to win. Their motto is: If we can't say anything good about ourselves, TEAR DOWN THE OTHER GUY EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO MAKE SOMETHING UP!
Posted by: con me not | Jul 18, 2008 8:38:23 PM
Who cares....oversensitive Obama supporters....you and your candidate need to develop a tougher skin. Remember when Obama gave Hillary the "finger"? I guess we Hillary supporters were just reading into that too. Quit reading between any imaginary lines....this is a non story.
Posted by: Deb | Jul 18, 2008 8:47:31 PM
You're reaching ABC. This is silly.
Posted by: enrique | Jul 18, 2008 9:26:17 PM
Hey, wait just a minute! In the haste to solve the subliminal puzzle with the random moving letters, everyone got off track on what the ad is about. It actually fits Obama perfectly. He has been on every possible position as it suited himself or the moment. How can he have it so many different ways? Doubletalker, backpedaler, green. He doesn't know what he is talking about. Great, factual ad. That ad is precisely who he is. Forget any attempt to claim subliminal messages. "Words do matter!"
Posted by: georgia | Jul 18, 2008 10:23:29 PM
What did you expect from the people who elected Bush, and are trying to elect McCain...integrity?
Posted by: wassup | Jul 18, 2008 10:28:47 PM
I understand why Obama is dropping in the polls---people are tired of his lying. Remember it was Obama himself that wrote in his book that he can pretty fool anyone (espeically whites) if you smile at them and pat them on the hand as you lie to them. Obama better look out below.......Hiliary is already planning her 2012 takeover election.
Posted by: chattyway | Jul 18, 2008 10:47:32 PM
Same McRetoric
Posted by: NoCrossNoCrown | Jul 18, 2008 10:56:57 PM
Dirty tricks, why do republicans always have to cheat to win. Then we all lose. 8 years of Bush he has dragged everyone down to his level.
Posted by: herpalm | Jul 18, 2008 11:22:04 PM
You did not make the ad frame by frame? That is how ads are made frame by frame! Another McCain Lye. Do you republicans actually believe the stuff (bull --it) coming out of your own mouth? What a bunch of hypocrites. To think if someone in the campaign speaks wrong we can just fire that person, that wasn’t McCain talking, GIVE IT A REST, only my six year old would believe that -r--. Can you read my subliminal MCSAME? Probably Not. If you remember back to an old work comp case someone asked you to help a few years ago, You remember who you slammed the door on. Believe me people every mistake in this campaign he is responsible for. Vote for the person running not because their a republican. Oh a republican has to vote that way, that why America has gotten slammed these past 8 years.
Posted by: TJS | Jul 18, 2008 11:41:27 PM
Obama campaign has been using subliminal messaging, and stagecraft visuals since day one. Bottom line, Obama has enough self incriminating smuton him already, that it defies logic he is still in this campaign.
Posted by: Badger1 | Jul 19, 2008 12:56:29 AM
Let's talk about Al Qaeda.
Who had it right when it really counted?
Before we got tricked into fighting in what McCain and Bin Laden call "The central front in the war on terror" Iraq (If Bin Laden said it was Antarctica would McCain agree and send troops there too?).
McCain and Bush let Bin Laden get away with killing 3000 Americans by pulling troops out of Afghanistan.
Judge for yourselves if we would have had a better chance of getting Bin Laden with Obama as President in 2002:
The one who was right in 2002 should be President in 2008.
Posted by: Graham P. | Jul 19, 2008 2:39:18 AM
I didn't notice that subliminal message but I did see the one that spelled "OICU812".
Posted by: Buckaroobonsai | Jul 19, 2008 2:48:43 AM
Obama is king of stagecraft and the subliminal, Axelrod makes Rove look like an amateur. An expert on propaganda has reviewed Obama's speeches and they are full of keywords.
And I'm sure the operative is an Obama thug out to play the 'poor me' card, another trick some of us caught onto back in February.
Posted by: pennsylvaniavoter | Jul 19, 2008 3:32:05 AM
*** "I didn't notice that subliminal message but I did see the one that spelled "OICU812"." --buckaroobonsai
That, too, is a subliminal message.... "Oh, I see you ate 12..." 12 what?, you might ask. 12 puppies, of course.
Posted by: DaveS | Jul 19, 2008 4:02:33 AM
Just another example of Republican "dirty" politics! They're experts at it! It's the story of the Republican party for the last twenty years. It just proves what I've always said about Republicans, they're corrupt greedy and have no ethics!
Posted by: Allen C. Morse III | Jul 19, 2008 4:18:20 AM
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