Making a drama out of a crisis -
McCain and Obama on the tube
Updated on 18 September 2008
Has Barack Obama clawed back the initiative in the race for the White House? James von Leyden compares Obama's and John McCain's advertising strategies.
For the last few weeks Barack Obama's campaign team have been on the back foot. Despite their efforts to associate John McCain with the most unpopular US administration in history - hardly a difficult task - McCain has remained level in the polls. From CBS to YouTube, McCain has been winning the battle of words.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in the way the Sarah Palin appointment was handled. Whatever Obama said about Palin was turned to McCain-Palin's advantage. In two 30-second TV commercials - still the favoured medium for reaching voters - the McCain team manipulated news headlines to whip up a sense of outrage.
'Disrespectful'
Obama was disrespectful, sexist, aggressive (see Disrespectful). He had air-dropped a "mini-army" of 30 investigators to Alaska "to dig the dirt" on Palin (an assertion later revealed to be untrue). Images of wolves prowling through snow reinforced the message that Obama was out to destroy poor, defenceless, all-Alaskan gal Palin.
The hard-hitting McCain commercials started in July, with the appointment of Chief Strategist Steve Schmidt. A protégé of Republican tactician Karl Rove, Schmidt's tactics were simple. Fling as much mud as possible. Compare Obama to Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, the Messiah, anything (see Celeb).
'Celeb'
As long as the smears got picked up, amplified on cable TV and night-time news shows, they deflected voters' attention from the real issues. They kept the fight away from Obama's preferred battleground: the economy, the need for change, Obama's record as a reformer, and McCain's record of cosying up to George W Bush, Washington lobbyists and Big Oil.
Although Obama's ads have tried to rise above the fray, he has been forced to respond on the same level (see His Administration). His efforts have not been as effective as the attacks from the McCain camp.
Research released by Nielsen on 5 September showed McCain's ads outperforming Obama's in general recall, translating into a hefty 10 per cent boost in voting intentions.
'His administration'
Then, on Monday, the Lehman Brothers story broke. The markets went into meltdown. Here, at last, was an opportunity for the Obama team to seize the initiative. To their glee, McCain made a remark in the morning that, despite everything, "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". Within 24 hours Obama's Chief Strategist David Plouffe had released an ad.
In Fundamentals, a series of stark headlines unfolds to sombre music and images. Lehman Brothers collapses... markets in turmoil... job losses at 605,000 for the year... foreclosures at 9,800 a day...and John McCain says? - cut to footage of McCain making his remark.
Even worse for McCain, he trips up over his words. The ad repeats McCain's fluffed delivery three times, as if to say here is a man who is not only in denial about the crisis but who can't even say his words right.
'Fundamentals'
It was all highly damaging for the McCain team, especially since Steve Schmidt had been quick off the mark to pre-empt Monday's headlines about Lehman Brothers. Even before the markets opened, he had put out an ad called Crisis A montage of headlines, stills and press clippings accompanied the message that only 'proven reformers' like John McCain and Sarah Palin could fix the "crisis".
In an attempt to minimise the fallout from McCain's remark, his camp rushed out another commercial (see Enough is enough) on Tuesday. As well as showing the senator in full "I feel your pain" mode, the spot is notable for its repeated use of the "c" word. "The economy is in crisis", John McCain declares in voice-over. "I'll meet this financial crisis head on... I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk..."
'Enough is enough'
The ad amounts to an admission by McCain that the orthodoxy of unregulated markets - of which he has been a staunch advocate - has been responsible for the woes affecting the American economy.
As the financial firestorm grew over the next two days, a third, even graver ad (see Foundation) appeared from the McCain camp. "You, the American workers", John McCain intones to camera, "are the best in the world. But your economic security has been put at risk by the greed of Wall Street... I'll reform Wall Street and fix Washington."
(McCain's biggest campaign backers, investment bank Merrill Lynch, might have raised an eyebrow at these comments had they not been engulfed in the firestorm themselves.) The commercial finishes with a declaration that "Change is Coming".
'Foundation'
As well as brazenly hijacking the Obama campaign theme, the "change" slogan shows how McCain's strategy has shifted. He is no longer an all-American maverick, lobbing missiles at his enemy.
Desperate to distance himself from the Bush administration and its economic policies, he has moved the fight onto Obama territory. McCain, too, is now about change.
The next 45 days will show if he's successful in convincing voters.
James von Leyden is a copywriter and brand strategist
