Bush Ad

So, I just saw one of the Bush ads on TV, the "Safer, Stronger" one. I'd seen it on the internet, but the TV version is a bit easier to digest. According to factcheck.org, the ad says this:

January 2001: The challenge:An economy in recession. A stock market in decline. A dot-com boom….gone bust. Then…A day of tragedy. A test for all Americans.

Today, America is turning the corner. Rising to the challenge. Safer, stronger.

President Bush. Steady Leadership in times of change.

But, frankly, while watching the ad I at first thought it was a parody. Had I not seen the introductory "I'm George Bush and I approve this message" I would have thought it was an opposition ad. All I saw were a bunch of things that went wrong. The subsequent "turning the corner" part almost seemed like a laugh line.


More ads like this, please.


...you can watch the ads online here. I watched that one again. I know I'm not the target audience for these things, but it still just looks really wrong. The "January 2001: The Challenge" part scrolls off too quickly, so if you blink you don't get the message that the ad is trying to convey - all those bad things happened right when poor victim George showed up. It's trying to say Not His Fault, but that doesn't really come across. Then, the "everything's great now!" imagery lasts about 1.5 seconds, and is totally without impact.