OMG - I saw something very slimey just now

[Mira]

I just saw an unmistakeable subliminal message in the new McCain Ad, the one where he says Obama is not ready...
yet.

I turned to the TV as it played, and saw the words:

Barack Obama
Lacks Experience

lined up in a way I am trying to approximate here, and it is not working.
The "Lacks Experience" line is stacked underneath the name, and set over to the right, so your eye makes a connection with the B in Barack and it
clearly reads "Black"

watch for it,
it is deliberate,
it is by "design",
I design with words for a living, I recognize what they are doing here.
And it makes me mad as hell.
We are being slimed in more ways than we know.

Vigilance

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Mira, It's time to go to bed in N.C.

We already know that repukes are slimeballs and will say anything to try to get ahead but NOT THIS TIME!

[Mira]

4. HEy - don't judge my judgment til you see it . It is glaring

And it is not my bedtime yet - Obama will be on with Jon
Stewart in a little while.
So - what's with you making fun of me anyway. Aren't we better friends than that?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

11. Oh God no. I would never make fun of you

I just don't want to see you bust a blood vessel over stuff that the msm makes up.

I love you darling. I wish you only the best.

[JPettus]

51. I believe you

And it's exactly the type of thing that they would do.

[pnwmom]

2. I agree, it's no accident. Good catch, Mira! Recommended. n/t

[stillcool]

3. someone else posted..

on this earlier. Must not be too subliminal...

[LeftyFingerPop]

5. Anyone have a screenshot or youtube link? n/t

[jeff30997]

6. You mean something like that?

Barack Obama
.Lacks Experience

Gee.Slimy indeed.But only appealing to peoples who are already racists IMHO.

[Mira]

9. yes, great job to show what I'm describing- but I disagree with your analysis

subliminal means you don't know it's happening. So the ones who are racist are re-enforced while they are unaware, and the ones who are not racist are disturbed while they are unaware.
It really sucks.

[misanthrope]

41. It's different than that...

...the lower line is just the word "LACKS" and the whole thing is in all caps font. The second line is not only inset a space, but the font is also twice the size as the line above.

As a result, the space under the "B" in "BARACK" gets weight from being the first letter that jumps into view as the copy fades in left to right. Then, your eye is immediately drawn down by the emerging larger "LACKS" below it. I can see how it might be viewed as an attempt at subliminal coercion.

Video

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Someone, somewhere can write a great article or thesis about these many circumstances

and I hope they will collect it for posterity

We also have the ad where the c and the e were diminished in order to make the word "change" morph into "hang" next to Obama

There's also the "Emmett Till dog whistle ad " where Sarah Palin is called "good lookin" and Obama is labeled "disrepectfulful

There are others, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately.

I would love to see the agencies and the designers and the candidates all called on their hatefulness!

[Mira]

13. I'll look for those. Glad you get what I'm saying. It is so

it should slime under the front porch to die.

[glinda]

27. THE MEDIA SHOULD COVER THIS...AWFUL AWFUL HATRED

[glitch]

31. Vile, loathsome people.

I bet they don't even know how vile they are, they are probably proud and self-righteous. Ugh.

[Usrename]

48. An expert should look at this ad very closely...

at eight seconds in, there are some faded words (one of them is the word BUT) that look to me to be pre-conditioning the mind to process the B.LACKS scene (which follows it in a few seconds) in some particular manner. It looks VERY sophisticated to me, and I don't know that much about how they do this stuff, other than it works. It's spooky.

I agree we are being overloaded with all types of propaganda, and it should be studied more closely.

[Orrex]

8. Wait a minute--he's black?!?

This changes everything!


Nice catch on the ad.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Joe The Slug?

:D

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Ha, ha! n/t

[Mira]

19. I am so honored for you to show up. I admire your work big time

[RevCheesehead]

12. K & R....

Now off to the Greatest page with you! :applause:

[Uncle Joe]

14. They know the power of subliminal advertising on television.

Nice catch, Mira

Kicked and recommended.

[bklyngrl60]

16. I did a little graphic design in a previous life. You're right. It's called "nesting"...

from a design standpoint and done to form an "image" of the words.

Maybe they didn't set out to do this - but I'm 100% positive it was noticed and left prior to airing.

Go viral :)

[Cronus Protagonist]

17. OMFG!!!!!! OBAMA'S BLACK??????

Not much of a punch to that one, eh?

[Mira]

21. I'm calming down now (NOT) next time I'll just ignore it

[Cronus Protagonist]

32. Well, it's not even a slur fer xists sake :P

It's just a simple fact. The one that said "HANG" was much more of a dog whistle. This one is a tempest in a teacup.

[Uncle Joe]

33. It's a subliminal political divider.

Obama isn't trying to run as the nation's black President, he's trying to run as President, this ad is subliminally trying to undercut his message.

That's my take on it, anyway.

[Usrename]

47. The problem with this subliminal crap is that we don't know.

This stuff is designed to trigger a subconscious response. The very nature of it is that you don't know what response they are trying to provoke.

All the scientific literature on this stuff says it is HIGHLY effective. That's why it has been outlawed.

[Cronus Protagonist]

55. It's been outlawed?

I wonder how it's used so often then, and by politicians, mostly.

[Usrename]

56. The ban doesn't seem to be enforced at all.

The FCC is supposed to take away their licence if air this stuff. At least that is what they say they are supposed to do.

[JNelson6563]

18. Yep, I saw it too

noticed it immediately, and knew they did it intentionally.

That just steels this white woman's determination to vote Obama. I resent this lame attempt to manipulate me.

Julie

[bertman]

20. Mira, if you can come up with an ad format that subliminally says

Old
Dick
Head

I'll help pay to put it on the air.

[Mira]

24. Now I'm laughing, I needed it. Geezer- Dingbat works for me

[bertman]

26. Mission accomplished.

Sleep well.

[jeff30997]

28. I'll try,but it's a pro McCain ad who tells the truth subliminally:

John McCain is
frankly a bold visionary
unlike that Dick Cheney.
And he have a head on his shoulders. :)

[bertman]

29. Not bad, jeff. Not half bad.

[jeff30997]

30. Well thank you.

It could be far better but I had to make it fast.

[Graybeard]

22. I don't see how this could be inadvertent.

Every frame of these spots is carefully crafted, every second is worked on over and over. It is slimy and ugly.

[Mira]

23. that's what she said

[yellerpup]

25. They are playing that ad in heavy rotation here in NY

AS IF it will make a difference! LOL! What a waste of advertising bucks...anyway as a person who searched the Jameson ads on the NY Times Magazine back cover for years, I know and see exactly what you mean. Mr. Pup does too. He's the artist. Good catch! K&R!

[wooblygook]

34. Fucking racist rethug bastards!

They can all rot in hell for the position they've put me, my loved ones, and my country in!

[Laelth]

61. Welcome to DU!

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[FatDave]

35. I didn;t notice it at first, but did when I went back and rewatched for your post.

I'm not 100% convinced it was intentional, but it wouldn't surprise me at all either.

It's in the way the text fades out to the right, putting more emphasis on the beginnings of the words. But then again, that could have been inadvertent. Gradients and partial transparencies are pretty common design elements these days.

Guess what I'm saying is I'm totally on the fence. I see your point, but worry about overreacting.

[Mira]

37. Really ?

[FatDave]

38. Really.

I'm not sure. Could be innocent, could be more sinister. Course, maybe that just means they did a good job with the plausible deniability.

At any rate, it's subtle enough they can easily deny it, so they'll try to make us look like idiots if we point it out.

When Obama said "lipstick on pig", was he talking about Palin? I would advise not taking the bait on this one.

[orleans]

42. youtube at 2:19 on the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAc_xcqIX20
(it's played on rachel's show)

i'm gonna say: yes. you are right--it probably was intentional. the word LACKS stands in huge capitol letters and your eye could follow the B down from the line above. for all these racist freaks out there i bet the word BLACKS jumps out at them.

that campaign is so fucking dirty and low-down, including mcfreak and the bitch herself with all they have done to gin up racism in this country--i would say of COURSE this was done intentionally.

simply because they are such pieces of SHIT!

(nice catch btw)

[SoCalDem]

66. PICTURE

[Generic Brad]

36. Doesn't he realize we should avoid white after Labor Day? n/t

[illuminaughty]

39. OMG I saw this, but didn't know what the word was

I saw a word under his name and it was so quick it reminded me of when Bush put the word RATS into a commercial subliminally. They made them stop running it.

It definitely makes you connect to one word, because I didn't see anything but the letters under his picture. WOW

[norepubsin08]

40. Send it to all the news stations

I think in some states, that type of advertising is against the law!

[VOX]

43. It's true. Doesn't anybody here remember the Republican "RATS" ad in 2000?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/americas/2000/us_elections/election_news/921830.stm

<snip>

The advertisement deals with one of the main domestic issues of the campaign - the provision of prescription drugs for the elderly.

It shows an image of Vice-President Al Gore, followed by fragments of the words "Bureaucrats decide". The word "RATS" briefly flashes on the screen before the entire word "bureaucrats" appears.

The ad has been broadcast in several key states. It contrasts the rival candidates' plans for prescription drugs, saying senior citizens will have more control over their health care under Mr Bush's proposals
<snip>

[Quantess]

44. What's the fuss? We already knew he's black.

It's not like they are "outing" him. Sorry, but this is a non-event. It's a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10, as slimy subliminals go.

[mocfra5.56]

45. crazy

idontgetit

[Joshua N]

46. Another example

I know it's sketchy, but that's the point:

right after the B. LACKS part, the commentator shows a white guy in the grocery store and says (with this emphasis)


HIS response to OUR economic crisis is to spend...


Why not his response to "the" economic crisis?




Like I said, I am reading between the lines, but it stood out to me before I even realized the "BLACKS" reference.

[WritersBlock]

49. I'm much more bothered by the "THE" that looks like "THIEF" a few seconds prior to that.

It's at 2:14 on the Rachael Maddow link someone posted above. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAc_xcqIX20 )

It shows a full facial view of Obama, very similar to a mug shot, with the word "THE" superimposed above his neck. The shading is such that at a glance, and only for a half-second or so, it looks like the word "THIEF" as the word "Truth" fades in from behind it.

That jumped out at me so hard I had to pause the player... because the word "truth" only stays visible for a second or so before the scene jumps, and it's hard to tell what word it is that is fading in from behind.

And the fact that it fades out so quickly tells me that they weren't interested in making a point of "The Truth" - they just used it as a convenient optical mechanism to make the word "the" look like "thief." That, coupled with the obvious "mugshot" pose, sends a very strong subconscious message to the bigots out there. Sorry, I meant to McCain's base.

Now as a caveat, I may be wrong. It may only be showing up on this clip and not on the actual commercial. I can't see the actual commercial because I'm in the UK. But as I said, it jumped out at me very strongly.

[lunatica]

50. I think it's another backfire for McCain

First, the images they use of Obama just make Obama look good. The first time I saw it I wondered what was wrong with them that they would make Obama look so good. And just now I looked at it again and my initial reaction that they make Obama look good is even more pronounced.

So, although I see your point and don't doubt their intention was exactly what you say it is, I think the images are far more powerful than the words. Obama looks Presidential in every shot. They're kicking their own asses with this ad. The subliminal message seems to be 'vote for Obama'

[ShortnFiery]

52. I wouldn't be surprised by this as volitional. As Obama said, "I don't think that ...

the white folk got the memo that they should be afraid of a black man running for President." ;)

My point is that I don't think that subliminal messages influence anyone at this point in the campaign.

Extra points for "smarmy" but overall, MASSIVE FAIL!

[Fleshdancer]

53. SCREENCAP:

[SpiralHawk]

54. more republicon mindf*ck propaganda

What a pack of manipulating fascists...

[cyberpj]

57. I noticed it - and I agree with you. Rovian tactics - and used all the time - remember Huckabee's

white (CROSS) windopane?

[cyberpj]

58. The video of the ad is on YouTube - and I'll go further with the subliminal tactic...

The right side of the screen is faded to black, making the 'S' at the end of the word 'lacks' harder to see.
AND - the quick shot immediately following that screen has it's own implications as well.
You decide:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ7tCWMmSJ0

[dorkulon]

59. Screencaps here.

The letters fade from the end of each line, obscuring the "s" in lacks.



This is immediately followed by an example of urban blight. This is ostensibly to highlight the economic crisis, but some might interpret it as a reinforcer of negative impressions about African Americans.



The boarded up house may not be meant in that way, I suspect, but the OP is right, I believe, about the lettering.

But what's most odd to me is the way the spot ends. It would seem that this would be a stronger message:



Than this:



The "yet" qualifier essentially neutralizes all of the other attacks McCain is leveling at Barack. A terrorist sympathizing, corrupt Marxist is not ready "yet"? If he really was all of those things, I suspect McCain would say he will never be ready. But, by implying that Barack just needs a bit more seasoning, say, another 4 or 8 years, before he is ready to be president, he tacitly acknowledges that all of those other smears are just a pile of BS. That word, "yet," seems like a stupid error on their part.

[Laelth]

60. Undoubtedly intentional, and typically vile.

At last, they are showing the world what scum they truly are. It took a black candidate, though, to bring all this to the surface. I am glad it happened. It may, if we're lucky, spell the end of the GOP.

GOP
one!

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[plaintiff]

62. What would be the point? Are you afraid there are people who don't know what color he is?

It won't change anyone's mind in any case. :eyes:

[cyberpj]

63. Just in case some people were beginning to overlook his color in favor of his policies.

[gardenista]

64. More important than that- those are "shots"

I watched it with the sound off. You see machine guns, and then the quick editing, the staccato feel to the following shots, is like rapid gunfire.

Very shocking and disturbing with the sound off. Try it.

[barack the house]

65. I think most good hearted people are beyond the color thing at this point really.