Saturday, October 04, 2008

Political creativity

More tour tales soon, I swear. In the meantime, John Cole at Balloon Juice posted this, and I grinned:



The question is: what's the genre? Is it a "negative ad"? An "anti-negative" ad? I'm not sure I'd describe it as "sarcastic," as Cole does -- to me, it's comical and satirical, but in a winking and, yes, "hopeful" way. The subtext seems to be: "C'mon, you're smarter than this." It never wades into the self-defeatism of full-on snark. Unlike some other ads I've seen.

In the wake of the first prez debate, there are calls for Obama to get meaner. (That McCain will get meaner is pretty much a given.) But I think injecting a little creativity into the communications process can go a long way. We -- or most of us -- are better than the bullshit.

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