The ad would have been extremely effective except for one thing: I tend to deconstruct advertising, and something in the video caught my eye and distracted me completely. Right around the 41st second, I noticed something that could not have possibly been in the original Apple commercial--in the Clinton version the Runner wears what looks like an iPod on her waist. There's no way Apple was working on anything resembling the iPod back in '84, right?
I checked the original, and the iPod does not appear. Of course it doesn't. But somebody sure put forth a lot of effort to get it into the new one. Are we looking at new footage or frame-by-frame Photoshopping? More importantly, why add it to a political piece at all? What kind of conspiracy are we dealing with here?
The original Apple ad (L) and the same frame from the modified version.
5 comments:
that is very interesting. i agree that the whole iPod inclusion seemed way out of place. although, perhaps it is the very thing that seems most representative of our time period. maybe it is also a commentary on how the technology might have changed but politics have not.
i do agree with you though that for techno-geeks like us it would have been more effective without throwing that distraction in, as well as perhaps a logo that didn't resemble that of apple.
Stephen did some digging and informs me that Apple added the iPod to the ad when they rereleased it for the spot's 20th anniversary. But I agree with you that the inclusion of the iPod signals an appeal to a new generation of voters, perhaps a paradigm shift in political advertising.
Good point about the stasis of political culture. I'm studying early US history and the nasty partisan mudslinging of the early presidential contests.
The logo on the Runner's shirt is Obama's campaign logo.
I was also thinking about something as I went to bed last night-
Just look at the state of politics when you have one Democratic candidate tearing down another one like that. I thought that they would at least have more semblance of being on the same team. Can a party against itself still stand?
I have been believing for about a year or two now that I will be really surprised if America is what we now know of her in another 150 years. I even heard our own former governor Tom Vilsack say that he has recently heard from a commentator that he greatly respects say that he believes that unless the USA drastically changes course, then it might only be 50 years before we are on our way to becoming a 3rd world country.
To add to the irony, there are a growing number of supporters of the idea of annexing Mexico as part of the US.
We're in enough trouble as it is, let alone adding another 31 states to the mix.
I... umm... I don't know what to say about this. There are so many things about it that make me feel very odd.
Ah well. What ever coolness I have had has either settled in or is headed out.. I am not sure. It's that vague to me.
here is the website to that short film we talked about yesterday.
http://lucidmovie.com/
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