Monday, October 30, 2006

Harold Ford: Hollywood Values

I will give this to Republicans this year. Their ads absolutely kick ass. Whether they are racist and otherwise morally repugnant-- well, yeah. (N.B.: amorality= awesome [see Edmund in King Lear, Satan in Paradise Lost, and the collected works of Uwe Boll]).

However, though everyone has heard about the Blonde Floozy advert ("Harold, call me"), people have not yet talked up about how visually slick and well-made the replacement ad "Hollywood Values" is.

I specifically like the kaleidescope of the vibrant background colors, which manage to distract the viewer from actually pondering the truthfulness of the assertions before another cut is made. (i.e. behind a backdrop of blue, yellows, and red, an announcer intones, "didn't you know Harold Ford took money from Hollywood's top x-rated porn moguls?" before a wipe is made and they make their next assertion). The sense of disorientation is also buttressed by the predominant use of wipes (side wipes, clock wipes, and maybe even a star wipe) in the ad, with each "shot" lasting maybe 2 seconds tops with whatever sound bite being propositioned spelled out in big, gyrating letters.

I just love the Republican's sense of irony. To actually use Hollywood production value when attacking someone for having "Hollywood values." Very Borgesian of them, very PoMo. I mean, this ad's knee jerk editing would put any video on MTV to shame.

Y.'s Rating: Awesome Squared.

2 comments:

Matt said...

Those replacement ads have been really cool, a wonderfully kinetic visual style. Thing is, I wonder if the association in the voters' minds will be "coolness = Harold Ford".

Though I particularly like the way that the word "shaky" shakes around, breaking the tv screen plane.

mediadumper said...

I also really like how the editors manage to take a clip of Harold Ford's Church ad and then subvert the piety by freeze framing him doing a cocky pose. Really clever.

Stylistically, and I say this with complete sincerity, this ad is really well-made.