Political Ads--Seriously?

With all the media outlets in the world today, it is easier than ever for a person running for political office to get their voice heard in one way or another.  Some political ads are straight forward and serve the facts.  Some ads make outlandish statements and accusations about opponents while others seem to be just strange or weird maybe to make the voter remember the candidate's name.  There also seems to be a lot of horn tootin' in today's political campaign ads.  There are a handful of ads out there that make you wonder why anyone would pay for the air time to put that ad on when its' statements are so ridiculous or the relevance of the ad is questionable.  I would like to bring to light a few of the ads that really "get my goat."  When I hear these ads start to come on, I usually turn off the radio or television.

First of all, why are political ads copying the format of the beer commercial featuring the world's most interesting man.  Is there not enough free thinking creativity left to create an ad that is original and gets the attention of voters.  This radio ad from Judge Jeff Rose copies the format and, to me, just sounds a bit goofy.  I understand being serious all the time is not very attractive to most voters but being over the top silly isn't either, at least in my opinion.  The statement about Judge Judy watching his court just seems like a waste of air, which I imagine doesn't come cheap.  Another ad under this umbrella attacks Bill White by calling him "the most mysterious Liberal in the world."  This ad is just a barrage of attacks and does nothing to persuade me to vote for Rick Perry.  The original beer commercial is annoying enough, I don't want to hear these poorly put together rip-offs that don't say much.

The new ad for Rick Perry which basically blames Bill White for a police officer's death is just absurd.  The video depicts Jocelyn Johnson, whose husband was a police officer killed by an illegal alien during an arrest, showing support for Perry and disdain for Bill White's policies while he was mayor in Houston.  The ad basically blames Bill White for the death of the officer.  This article from the Austin American Statesman explains what happened during the incident in question.  The officer didn't do a thorough enough investigation of the suspect and failed to find a concealed weapon.  It is a tragic incident any way you spin it, but to try and use it for political gain is just disgusting.

This commercial for John Cornyn which was played at the Republican Party of Texas Convention is just a joke of an ad.  It is set to the tune of "Big Bad John" originally recorded by country artist Jimmy Dean.  The video makes me think he wants to be a metaphorical Senator of cowboys in the wild west.  The whole ad is just statements tootin' his own horn and making people think he's a real tough Texas cowboy "doin' the Lord's work for Texas." I don't see how a rationally minded individual could take this ad seriously.

Two lesser radio ads are for candidates I can't remember at this moment.  In one of the ads, the candidate states that he's for concealed guns and that he carries one in his boot.  That's a little too much information.  Maybe that type of information should be kept to himself.  The other ad is for a female candidate who seems proud to be a rookie and states we should vote for the rookie because Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio were rookies.  I was left asking myself if that was the only reason we should vote for her.

These ads cost money and it doesn't seem that these candidates are really getting their money's worth with these types of ads.

Advantages of Perry

This is a critique of a commentary from the Burnt Orange Report titled "Rick Perry's Natural Advantage".  The commentary, written by Karl Thomas Musselman, was written Sunday October 10th 2010, at 4:33 PM.  The article mentions reasons why Rick Perry has an advantage over Bill White in the race for the governor's seat in Texas.  Since this article is on a liberal blog site, you would expect the intended audience to be liberal, which, to me, seems the case.  He defines Perry's advantages as "The Shrinking Media" and "Blissfull Ignorance.  I agree with his comments on "The Shrinking Media" to a point.  He puts a lot of importance in print media, such as newspapers, and seemingly discounts the reporting aspects of online resources such as blogs.  I don't see why a website couldn't publish long form articles in multi-part series to inform the public.  More and more people are moving from print media to electronic media.  Maybe it's time for some of the major print media sources to allocate more attention to an online format to transfer their ideas to a larger base of readers.  I do agree with the fact that since Texas is such a large state, it is hard to have a unified voice in the news.  What maybe headline news on the Gulf Coast, like a hurricane, could be just a flash in the pot on news stations out in West Texas, which probably would not be affected at all by a hurricane.  I believe online sites that report political news would have a much greater chance being a unifying news source since collaboration is possible from all over and the end product is posted in really just one spot,  the Internet.  The unifying news source being online also has faults such as lack of Internet in some areas, so unifying Texas news would be a very hard thing to do.  The author's second "advantage" for Rick Perry is "Blissful Ignorance".  I agree with this completely.  Most voters will listen to the ads on TV and believe them and vote accordingly with the candidate they like the most without much other thought.  It seems to me though that every political ad promoting growth and prosperity has some sort of back story.  There is even a reference in the blog to a commentary in the Austin American Statesman referencing my point. The reference mentions that Texas is the leader in job creation but it faces a massive budget shortfall.  Ads for Rick Perry recently have been praising Perry for the creation of jobs in Texas, but at what cost did these jobs come?  To some the answer may be in the form of layoffs, spending cuts and accounting tricks that will be considered next year to combat the state budget shortfall.  The author seems to be credible, graduating from UT and working on political campaigns, but he is strictly liberal.  I like to read articles and commentary from writers who are truly independent and present positive and negative facts for all candidates.  I believe the intent of the article is to shift the blame for Bill White's poor numbers in the pre election polls from the campaign itself, to media and uneducated voters, although, he does state that Bill White needs to educate voters and basically build a stronger campaign.