So, the Obama infomercial has just aired. Unlike Ross Perot’s ground-breaking infomercial sixteen years ago, there were no charts or graphs. Thankfully.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow thinks it was a success: “He had me at the waving wheat.” It certainly wasn’t the over-the-top catastrophe that the McCain campaign would have hoped for. I think that it was a net positive, and possibly very, very helpful to increase his margin of victory. That is because this very polished program hit ten important bases just six days before the election. In no particular order:
1. Reach key fence-sitters like sub-urban women, latinos, and white families in financial distress.
2. Rev up the Obama base to get out and vote, and to help get that vote out.
3. Portray Obama as presidential, standing and sitting by an Oval Office-like desk.
4. Hit all of the key themes of this election: economic survival and opportunity (including affordable healthcare), energy independence, national security, patriotism, and offer up specific actions Obama would take (he had been accused of offering only vague proposals).
5. Draw out viewers’ empathy for and identification with ordinary Americans’ troubles (whose lip didn’t tremble to see that retiree cheated out of his pension?); show Obama as the candidate who cares about everyday Americans.
6. Represent and reach swing state voters (Ohio, New Mexico) and cultural groups spanning swing and non-swing (Kentucky, Kansas), with family portraits, endorsements and the live rally at the end (in Florida).
7. Own up to 24 hours of just 150 hours left in this campaign’s news cycle. We won’t know until tomorrow how many Americans watched the infomercial, but it will be in the millions, sort of like a debate, except without McCain.
8. Spend more up-close time with uncertain voters who might have been susceptible to Republican and fringe internet attacks on Obama’s character.
9. Force McCain to respond with more attacks on Obama (he is calling it a gauzy ad “paid for with broken promises”), which never sits well with swing voters.
10. Increase voters’ comfort with Obama, by showing him as a dedicated family man.
Inform Your Consent 