The Ad Campaign: An Obama Infomercial, Big, Glossy and Almost Unavoidable

From The New York Times:
THE PROGRAM The program gave a new meaning to the word “infomercial” and, for that matter, to all notions of political advertising. Executed with high standards of cinematography, with help from the director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Davis Guggenheim, the infomercial was part slickly produced reality program; part Lifetime biography; and part wonkish policy lecture with music that could have come from “The West Wing.”

Watch the Informatial Below.



Its imagery was acutely Middle American: suburban lawns, American flags, corn fields and factories. It was packed with swing state and Midwestern governors and senators who spoke in glowing terms of Mr. Obama; a brigadier general, now retired, vouched for his national security credentials.

At the heart of the program were the stories of four everyday families of different backgrounds who told stories of lost health care benefits, the necessities of food rationing and the need to hold more than one job. Mr. Obama told how his mother had to worry about whether the health care provider at her new job would cover her as she battled ovarian cancer. And he retold his background as the grandson of a man who fought in “Patton’s Army” and a grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II.

But for much of the program Mr. Obama stood before a presidential desk as he laid out his tax plans, health care plans and his approach to world affairs, saying that, as commander in chief, “I’ll renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression.”

In somewhat jarring fashion, the infomercial ended with Mr. Obama addressing an auditorium audience in Florida, live.