...think of the Mission Accomplished photo op, or all those speeches where Bush stands in front of phrases like "Strategy for Victory." Those backdrops are set up by marketing pros, and the images help coax certain perspectives on Bush and his policies into viewers' heads.
Al Franken talks a bit about this strategic use of imagery in his book, which I first mentioned a few posts back. His best example is a commercial from the final stretch of W's campaign against Kerry:
The ad, which played like a trailer for a horror movie, showed flashes of wolf fur and fangs amid the leafy shadows of a deep, dark forest. An ominously somber announcer voiced the script:
In an increasingly dangerous world...
Even after the first terrorist attack on America...
John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America's intelligence operations by 6 billion dollars...
Cuts so deep they would have weakened America's defenses.
And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm.
At this point, a group of wolves lounging in a grassy clearing arose and began advancing toward the viewer. And then the tagline:
I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.
Franken points out that the ad is misleading as well as frightening. For instance, the reference to "the first terrorist attack on America" probably made you think of 9/11, right? It actually refers to the '93 WTC bombing, and the period after that incident was an era in which all of Washington was voting to scale back intelligence spending. Anyway, you can watch this fun little mind-bender here.
