June 27, 2011 - 9:59 am
This anti-Obama legacy video is making its way around Al Gore’s internet. It is geared to young voters who, after watching, perhaps will learn a thing or two about the consequences of their 2008 “Hope and Change” vote. Let’s hope the 2012 election is when they will grow up and vote as if their own future, and that of the nation, are truly at stake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQD9IaGoLWk
This is stylish, but ineffective. It flips between 20 different issues instead of focusing clearly on one. Are young voters going to be motivated by the increased price of silver, or cotton?
I agree, it is not the clearest message. But perhaps it will plant a small seed of doubt to a demographic that must change its voting habits in 2012. Hopefully there will be many more of these types of videos and much better ones with clearer messages. Maybe the Obama-girl can be convinced to work for the other side!
People who make ads should learn a little bit about how people read. I’m a linguist and an educator and I know that (1) most of the audience will not be able to read the written messages in the ad because they appear too briefly on the screen; (2) the superimposition of the writing over visual information makes both unintelligible–the viewer can’t decide quickly enough which to focus on before the scene disappears; (3) meaning can be grasped only through its context; there are too many different messages, each appearing in a different context and each message/context disappears before the viewer can mentally process which the context in order to comprehend the message.
Mashing together contemporary music with some visuals does not make an intelligible ad for any audience, young or old.
I
Thought
It
Was
Awesome.
You
Critics
Don’t
Understand
Youth.
It was pretty cool, although the music wasn’t to my personal tastes. I’ll show this to my liberal friend whenever I see him next and see what he thinks about it.