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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Observation

The "celeb ad" aired less than half a dozen times total and only in a few local markets.

It is the media that is "making" this ad.

8 Comments:

  • Clever. All you need to do is mention Britney spears.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:15 PM  

  • I think Lindsey Lohan is upset that she wasn't in the ad.

    If you think about it who in this campaign is most like Britney and Paris - a much older combo of the two................Its Cindy McCain!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:24 PM  

  • Anon, this is how the swiftboaters did it. Their original budget was tiny. They ran one ad, and the media brought them into the big time.

    .....

    Left-over, I've thought that alot. Have you ever checked out Meghan McCain's video blog? She's gotten better, but in the early entries she is definitely that ultra rich spoiled young woman.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:36 PM  

  • But does it work, or does it blow back?

    (Frickin' cable news and their insipid need to fill space. They conjure controversy wherever they can merely to sell ad space... and the bottom feeders work this to their advantage. Really. Cable news is probably the worse think that happened to American democracy in 50 years.... sorry for the rant)

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:01 PM  

  • Again, this echoes the swiftboaters. A very small media buy carried on by the media for the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in free airtime.

    As a broader point, media as a whole is collapsing under market pressures. We had this golden age of journalism that came after WWII that made an effort to put up firewalls to make news just news, but the profit motive has torn those back down.

    Interestingly, because people want news to reinforce their beliefs, the most profitable model is to produce slanted news to one market.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:25 PM  

  • "Interestingly, because people want news to reinforce their beliefs, the most profitable model is to produce slanted news to one market."

    It seems so obvious now that you say it, but I hadn't thought of it that way. People don't want news, why want validation. Hmmm.

    By Blogger -epm, at 6:44 AM  

  • That's the dirty secret of blogs of which I became uniquely aware when all the Clinton people were throwing hissy fits at me for what, at the time, was pretty neutral blogging explaining mathematically why she couldn't win.

    Also, of course, the secret of FoxNews, the WSJ, LATimes, and NYTimes. Some of it is intentional (FoxNews,) but some of it simply comes from a self reinforcing culture.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:19 AM  

  • "Cable news is probably the worse think that happened to American democracy in 50 years"

    If you don't like it, turn the channel. And what does it have to do with democracy? Nothing. Cable TV news is an exercise of First Amendment rights, not voting rights.

    By Blogger realist, at 8:08 AM  

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