With respect to the approaching presidential elections and in
relation to my central media theme “money, biases and political power in the
media”, I decided to center this week’s blog on analyzing the very first “Obama”
political campaigning advertisement of 2012 in relation to genre. This campaigning advertisement by the National
Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) falls under the genre of political,
informational and depending on the measurement one’s sense of humor, comical. However,
the ultimate genre used as a political weapon in this advertisement is satire. While
analyzing this advertisement I noticed a variety of political and satirical
tools used to attack Mr. Obama. The combination of these two genres are used,
in my interpretation, to appeal to the voters who are not as interested in
politics, politically savvy or just wants a good laugh. “Yes we can, yes we
can, yes we can” are the words chanted by Obama supporters as the advertisement
began to play. I believe it’s safe to say that the majority of Americans know
that this is the slogan that the Obama campaign “coined” in 2008 during the
campaign season. In respect to this opening scene, I believe the advertisement
fueled by its political agenda, appealed to many television viewers and grabbed
their attention. After the political advertisement grabbed the public’s
attention with this melodious chant, it began to attack the Obama
administration with the “hot” topics of his (Obama) term. Obama Care, The end
of our dependence on American energy, Obama’s “many “vacation extravaganzas,
the BP spill, the presidents NCAA bracket and the national deficit problem were
all topics that the NRSC satirically poked fun at by describing each event as a
hypocrisy of the Obama administration. At the end of the advertisement, Obama
is shown riding a mystical unicorn with a rainbow trailing behind him; which in
my view symbolizes how out of touch Obama is with reality. Therefore, appealing
to the comical genre which is mentioned above. This political campaigning advertisement
with a satirical genre shows Obamas views (from a partisan author) in a mocking
rhetoric, which appeals to most Republicans.
“President Barack Obama’s First Ad of 2012” link
“President Barack Obama’s First Ad of 2012.” Video Clip. 31
March, 2011. YouTube. 2 October 2012.
The first part of your giant paragraph is great. Good introduction, interesting frame (although I would argue that satire here is a form not a genre but that is a minor quibble). But you lose me in the second half. First of all, use paragraphs. They make your text easier to read. Second, you rush through a lot, and you don't really do any in depth analysis. How are these topics satirically portrayed? Why does it show the chant of "Yes, we can"? It sounds like the whole ad is framed to mock this catch phrase- but you never QUITE say that. You say the ad shows that he's out of touch with reality but not HOW he's out of touch with reality. You need to finish your thoughts a little better.
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