New Obama Ad: “Go”

In a new ad titled “Go” President Obama pushes recovery in a novel and effective manner.

The ad contains powerful images. It begins with the year 2008 flashed across the screen, with dismal images reminding you of all that went wrong that year – people with haunted faces standing in unending queues, foreclosed homes and newscasters announcing stock market disasters. The year 2008, stays affixed in one corner, even as one image after another come on to the screen, as a reminder that all these chaotic happenings occurred before Obama took over and absolving him of all responsibility.

Following the scenes of Obama’s inauguration, the images become upbeat and reflect a sense of light at the end of the tunnel. A narrator says, “He believed in us, fought for us,” and informs us about the resurgent auto industry and the American Seals raid in killing Osama Bin Laden. The narrator talks about the end of the Iraq war being imminent, with the camera panning to a moving scene of a young girl running into the arms of her father, who is wearing his military uniform.

A graph on jobs, under Obama’s tenure, reflects growth and the narrator says, “Instead of losing jobs, we’re creating them, over 4.2 million so far.” “We’re not there yet. It’s still too hard for too many,” the narrator concludes. “But we’re coming back, because America’s greatness comes from a strong middle class. Because you don’t quit, and neither does he,” suggesting that the President is determined to see things to their end.

Obama’s ad is made on the same lines as the “Morning in America” ad that Ronald Reagan had made in for his 1984 re-election bid. The ad is in the form of a storyline that tells how dismal and grim things were prior to his taking over, and that whatever problems there were are something not of his making, but something that he had inherited from the earlier regime.

It presents Obama as someone who was determined to reverse the trend and whatever results he has achieved so far, are harbingers of better days ahead. This is the largest ads by the Democrats so far, in number of states being targeted. It is being aired on Broadcast and cable TV stations in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all key swing states.

The optimism in the ad seeps through inasmuch as whatever is stated in the ad is true. There are no twisted or misleading claims. The economic meltdown did begin under George Bush and the Labor Department will corroborate his claims that he has managed to create 4.2 million jobs. Chrysler and General Motors both received bailouts and both are now back in good health. The President ordered the return of American troops from Iraq and he really did take-out Osama.

These claims, all factual, are presented as signs of a recovery and point towards better days ahead. It rebuts fairly well Romney accusations that he hasn’t done anything to improve the economy.

Above all the ad conveys that Obama is an optimist with his feet on the ground and aware of harsh realities. It is an advertising masterstroke to use clips of tea party rallies, with a narrator questioning those who said, “Our best days were behind us,” in an attempt to tell that his opponents as those with a negative mindset.

Coming in the wake of a spate of negative ads, this ad is refreshing for its transparency and honesty and Romney will be hard put to tear it apart.

Reacting from Ohio, Romney said that Obama’s policies were squeezing middle-income Americans and that he, with a business background could give it the desired impetus.