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Earlier comment in BooMan’s fp story by The Voice In The Wilderness.
Re: Clowns to the Right of Me (none / 0)
Sort of on topic:
At 4:18AM Chicago time, ABC-TV flashed a subliminal frame that said “ONE TERM” in giant letters. I caught it because it was storming at the time and the frame froze and partially pixelated.by The Voice In The Wilderness on Thu Jul 19th, 2012 at 05:59:23 AM EST
C&L – Subliminal Message In McCain’s New Ad?
(ABC Political Radar) July 18, 2008 – ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: There’s a longtime tradition in political advertising to look beyond the message to the subtext — and even to the subliminal. In that spirit, a veteran Democratic operative offers an interesting observation of the newly released anti-Obama Web video produced by the McCain campaign. The video is an eight-minute montage of sometimes contradictory statements about the Iraq war made by Sen. Barack Obama. At the very beginning, the title — “The Obama Iraq Documentary” — flashes into place in a blaze of orange. And for a single frame — a tiny fraction of a second — Obama’s face is framed by the following prominent letters: “a l q D.”
McCain Web Ad Is Accused Of Linking Obama to Antichrist
The ad has also generated criticism from Democrats and religious scholars who see a hidden message linking Sen. Obama to the apocalyptic Biblical figure of the antichrist.
The spot, called “The One,” opens with the line: “It shall be known that in 2008 the world will be blessed.” Images follow of Moses parting the Red Sea and Sen. Obama telling a crowd, “We are the change we’ve been waiting for.”
The video was produced by McCain’s ad team, FoxHole Productions. A McCain aide told ABC that it was primarily put together by an editor who had about 48 hours to throw it together in advance of Obama’s foreign trip. Still, in this era of hyper-analysis — and in the very week that a non-subtle New Yorker cover was blasted as beyond the bounds of satire — should something like this have slipped by Team McCain?
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Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for President Bush who is now an ABC News consultant, said something like this should have been caught before it was sent out. He noted that campaigns need to be extra sensitive in the wake of the 2000 Republican National campaign ad attacking Al Gore that was revealed to feature a quick shot of the word “RATS.”
RNC Adviser Alex Castellanos Admits That His Infamous Jesse Helms Ad Hurt Race Relations
(Think Progress) – Perhaps what sets Castellanos apart from other political consultants is his use of subliminal, often racist, messages. In a profile piece, Eric Boehlert noted some of Castellanos’ most infamous work:
In 1990, working for Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, he produced perhaps the most racially divisive TV ad in campaign history. Called “White Hands,” it featured an angry white worker crumpling up a job rejection notice. He had lost out because “they had to give it to a minority.” More recently, in 2000, his firm National Media produced an ad mocking Al Gore’s stance on prescription drugs, flashing the word “RATS” on the screen for a split second. Castellanos denied using subliminal advertising.
Washington Post’s Fix Blog: McCain Expands Campaign Media Team (2008)
Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain is vastly expanding his campaign media team — bringing in a number of the leading consultants as he prepares for the general election.
The media operation, which will be known as Foxhole Productions, is adding three media consultants — Fred Davis, Chris Mottola and Cesar Martinez to the original group of Mark McKinnon, Mike Hudome, Justin Germany and Mark Salter.
Davis is perhaps the biggest name of the recent additions, having worked for McCain early in the cycle before leaving the effort in late July when the Arizona senator essentially ran out of money. Davis is extremely well-regarded in Republican circles, running a boutique media consulting firm with just a few clients every election. In 2006, he helped Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Calif.) and Sonny Perdue (Ga.) win their reelection races and handled the media for Sen. Bob Corker’s (Tenn.) narrow victory in the Volunteer State.
Mottola was part of the media team for Rudy Giuliani’s failed presidential bid. He has done considerable work in House and Senate races as well, including the 2002 reelection race of Gov. George Pataki (N.Y.) as well as the issue advertising for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2006 Virginia Senate race.
Martinez is a director and producer based out of Texas who worked for the Bush-Cheney team in both the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.
In addition to the core group of media consultants that comprise Foxhole Productions, a separate group of advisers — known as the McCain Ad Council — will serve as outside thinkers and strategists to the media effort.
That group is chaired by Las Vegas mover and shaker Sig Rogich and Texas-based consultant Lionel Sosa. The MAC — as McCain insiders refer to the Council — includes Jim Farwell of the Farwell Group, Kathy Sosa, Paul Brabender of BrabenderCox, Paul Wilson of Wilson Grand Communications, Jim Innocenzi of Sandler-Innocenzi, Bob Wickers of Dresner, Wickers & Associates, John Gautier, Alex Castellanos of National Media, Myra Adams, Harold Kaplan (a copy-writer who worked with the Bush team in 2000 and 2004) and Richard Price, a senior marketing and advertising official with CVS.
Of that group, Brabender worked with Mottola on the presidential campaign of Giuliani while Castellanos was intimately involved in the ad-making and strategy for Mitt Romney’s campaign. Wickers’s firm handled all of the polling and media for Mike Huckabee in his recently ended bid for the GOP nomination.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
