Campaign Outsider to Earthlings

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

This weekend Public Radio International’s Living on Earth interviewed the hardworking staff about Audi’s “Green Police” Super Bowl spot.

Transcript:

YOUNG: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Jeff Young. If you watched the Superbowl, you might have caught the new ad for Audi’s A3 TDI, a low-emissions diesel car. The ad features an aggressive eco-vice squad.

AD: Okay, so it’s 37.08. Paper or Plastic? Plastic. That’s the magic word – Green Police. You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem, plastic boy!

[GREEN POLICE SONG]

AD: Battery! Battery! Let’s go, take the house. Put the rind down. Sir, that’s a compost infraction!

YOUNG: The green police bust enviro-violators for plastic bottles and incandescent light bulbs. They inspect cars at a roadblock, where the Audi, of course, gets the green light.

AD: We got a TDI here, clean diesel. You are good to go, Sir.

[CAR ENGINE VROOMS AWAY]

YOUNG: Well that Superbowl spot kicked off a bit of controversy with conservatives, liberals, environmentalists and industry all feeling equally aggrieved by Audi’s ad. John Carroll’s here to help us work out just what’s going on. He teaches Mass Communication at Boston University and when it comes to over-thinking advertising he’s our go-to-guy. John – welcome back!

CARROLL: Nice to be back.

YOUNG: Well, Audi’s trying to sell the green car of the year here by poking fun at greens. That’s kind of an odd way to try and sell something, isn’t it?

CARROLL: Not really, I mean I think what they’re looking for is an audience that can appreciate this kind of approach. This is a terrific spot for a number of different reasons. One of them is the pacing of the spot – they have the audience on a string for the first 45 seconds, not knowing who this thing was for until they rolled out the Audi.



The Audi A3 TDI played a supporting role to the Green Police (Courtesy of Audi) 

The other part of it is the execution; I mean they had rolled every visual cliché available from newscast, entertainment programs, advertising all into one sort of green pig-in-a-blanket. And it’s so visual comforting that it just draws people in to the action. And then the third thing is the ambiguity of it. Even now, the debate’s going on: who should really be offended by this? And you don’t know who’s behind the thing for so long – it could be the treemuggeratti, it could be the plastics industry, it could be Al Gore – you have no idea. And that’s kept it alive for a whole week.

YOUNG: And here we are doing our part by talking about it.

CARROLL: Exactly.

YOUNG: A lot of people took this fairly seriously and seemed to get a little ticked off. Let’s start with the environmentalists. They say this is a negative portrayal. Environmental blogger Adam Segal declared it “offensive on many levels. It promotes a view of environmentalism as heading toward a police state.”

CARROLL: I think that’s going a little bit overboard. The ecotists dislike this spot because it reinforces the common image of the sort of know-it-all, P.C. hall monitors who are out there. And I think that upsets them because people don’t take them seriously enough when they go out and try to deliver their message. So I think what they’re seeing is their credibility being chipped away at.

YOUNG: The conservative blogosphere also lit up over this with comments like this one: “Wake up, people, the green police are already here!”

CARROLL: Yeah, I think that’s part of it, that’s half of the conservatives. The other group of conservatives who dislike it is that it makes the green police look like Monty Python rather than the menace that conservatives believe they are. So, there are so many different shades of green here that you can see in this spot. It’s one of the best things about the spot. I mean, it’s a litmus test or a Rorschach test for every interest group out there.

YOUNG: You know, actually, I think they mostly resemble the guys at “Reno 9-1-1”.

[CARROLL LAUGHS]

YOUNG: If anybody should be offended it should be them, they got ripped off here, but that’s just my impression. And lastly, the plastics industry is offended here – the plastics counsel put their own website in retaliation called: Green Police Confused, with helpful tips about why plastics are really good for you. What do you think – did the plastics guys get a bum rap in this ad?


A hot tub owner resists arrest from the Green Police. (Courtesy of Audi) 

CARROLL: I think they’re an easy target, I think they feel unfairly singled out, but it’s everybody who’s being sort of mocked here and held up for satire.

YOUNG: You know, I like it, I chuckled. And they had me from the get-go because I’m a sucker for power pops, so I heard the opening chords of that Cheap Trick song and just psshhh –

CARROLL: Yeah.

YOUNG: But I had a hard time figuring out who’s the target audience? What’s the demographic they’re after here?

CARROLL: Well one of the theories is that the demographic they’re after is upscale. It’s obvious that it’s upscale white males who are being busted in these scenarios. From one standpoint anyway that the upscale male who wants to be environmentally conscious but doesn’t really want to work at it too much can go out and buy a cool car and do his bit for the environment.

So I think it’s not the committed, they don’t need to attract them – they’ve already got them. It’s the people who are looking for a way that’s easy and stylish to be environmentally conscious, and if they have enough money those are the ones who I think Audi is targeting.

YOUNG: You know, this is kind of a tough sell for Audi ’cause the clean diesel is not really a well known concept here, I think it’s better known in Europe, but here it almost sounds like an oxymoron to people who remember older diesel vehicle, which were quite dirty. They’re not really playing up the car itself in this ad, are they?

CARROLL: No, I don’t think that’s the purpose of this. There’s a 106 million people watching, having fun, eating nachos and drinking beer. I mean I don’t think they want to get into any kind of serious discussion of clean diesel at that point. I think what they want to do is get themselves on the radar screen. I think the whole purpose of this was to grab people’s attention and let them know that the car is there.

YOUNG: John Carroll teaches Mass Communications at Boston University and blogs at campaignoutsider dot com. Thanks a lot.

CARROLL: Thank you, Jeff.

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Charlie Wilson’s Warts

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Lots of boffo obits for former Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-Afghanistan), who inspired the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” (also boffo at the box office).

One news organization wearing industrial-size pom-poms: The Wall Street Journal, whose Friday editorial began this way:

The average Member of Congress casts votes along party lines, passes out pork to the folks back home, attends fund raisers, and if he can’t find anything better to do with his life serves long enough to revel in being called “Mr. Chairman.” Then there are the rare likes of Charlie Wilson, the 12-term Texas Democrat who died this week at age 76, having helped to win the Cold War.

A same-day WSJ opinion piece by John Fund elaborated:

Charlie Wilson was a Texas Democrat who in the 1980s teamed up with other Cold Warriors to funnel arms to the Afghan rebels, humiliating the Soviet Union and hastening its end.

But not everyone has the same high regard for Wilson.

Exhibit A: This blog post at Telegraph.co.uk, which begins:

Would British and American troops be giving their lives in Afghanistan today if not for the late Charlie Wilson?

The former Texas senator’s intended legacy has been preserved forever on the silver screen by Tom Hanks in ‘Charlie Wilson’s War,’ the true story of how, almost single-handedly, he drew the United States in supporting Mujahideen fighters in their fight to overthrow the Kabul government and drive out the Soviet Red Army which propped it up.

The CIA military aid he generated strengthened the Mujahideen and eventually forced Moscow to withdraw its Red Army from Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson’s War celebrates his role as an anti-Communist Cold War hero and perhaps his actions played a part in the later collapse of the Soviet empire.

Today, the impact of his intervention is not so tidy.

Exhibit B: This Huffington Post post headlined, “I Come Not to Praise Wilson, But to Bury Him.”

Sample copy:

We all know that it was blonde bombshell Joanne Herring (played by Julia Roberts in the film) who recruited Wilson to the “cause of the Afghans.” However, it would really be more accurate to state that Mrs. Herring, as Honorary Consul for Pakistan, actually recruited Charlie Wilson to the “cause of the Pakistanis.”

And that cause, according to the HuffPo piece, was all about oil:

[I]n both the book and movie, Charlie Wilson’s War, we are told that Mr. Wilson was living on $700 a week. However, his 1981 Financial Disclosures show that, as of May 1982, he was holding between $100,000 to $250,000 worth of shares in an oil company called Supron, which he had purchased in March and September of 1981. On $700 a week? That’s a man who knows how to stretch a penny! Coincidentally, in April of 1982, Union Texas Petroleum purchased a controlling interest in Supron, and in October of that year, Congressman Wilson made his first official visit to Pakistan. Owning a plump share in Pakistan’s oil business could not fail but to heighten the good Congressman’s sympathy towards the Pakistani point of view. Such sympathy is further evidenced by the fact that, upon retiring from Congress in 1996, Wilson promptly became a high paid lobbyist for Pakistan, to the tune of over $300,000 per year.

Campaign Outsider Official InfoAlert™: The hardworking staff vouches for absolutely none of the aforementioned assertions.

We’re just saying . . .

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WSJ Shoes Don’t Fit

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Thursday’s dead-tree edition of the Wall Street Journal featured this piece headlined:

When the Shoe Fits, But Needs a Fix

Online Cobblers Repair Footwear From Afar; Services From Heel to Toe, With Polishing and Waterproofing to Boot

Here’s the lede:

Last year, women purchased 728,808 pairs of shoes in the U.S., and men purchased 327,421 pairs, according to market research company NPD Group. Even with all that footwear out there, shoe-repair shops are becoming increasingly rare. Stepping up are a number of online cobblers, who accept and return footwear by mail.

Let’s do the math. That means one-half of one percent of American women bought a new pair of shoes last year.

In a word: Nah.

The Journal corrected that misstep on its website:

Corrections & Amplifications

In 2009, women purchased 728.8 million pairs of shoes in the U.S., and men purchased 327.4 million pairs. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that women purchased 728,808 pairs and men purchased 327,421 pairs. This article has been corrected.

Yeah – if you check the website. Otherwise, you get the distinct impression that American women are . . . well . . . undershod.

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Free the David Bernstein One!

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

MSNBC’s political digest First Read featured this item on Thursday:

*** Romney 2.0 (or is it 3.0?): The Boston Phoenix has a great read how Romney is positioning himself for a possible 2012 bid, in advance of his appearance at CPAC (next week) and his book tour (next month).

Here’s the rest of the item, in its entirety:

The article details how Romney has moved away from social issues and toward his ability to be a “Fix-it” man. It also notes that he might focus exclusively on a blue-state primary strategy (think New Hampshire over South Carolina). “Interestingly, this latest incarnation is probably the closest we have seen to the ‘real’ Mitt Romney… But some of those same people concede that, as a political strategy, there are two big potential hazards to ‘letting Mitt be Mitt.’ First, Romney’s previous reinventions … have already strained his credibility beyond the breaking point.” But perhaps the biggest question mark for Romney, the article says, is whether — in this Tea Party environment — he appeals to GOP primary voters. Also, can Romney really bypass South Carolina? In every cycle since 1980, the winner of that contest has gone on to claim the GOP presidential nomination.

So, what’s missing here?

The Phoenix reporter, DAVID BERNSTEIN.

Geez, guys – you give a fella the digital slingshot, but you don’t give his name?

Really?

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Pot and Kettle (of Fish) at CBS

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

When CBS changed its no-advocacy-ad policy to accept Focus on the Family’s Super Bowl ad, the Tiffany network opened up a family-size can of worms.

Flatworm A (via Alternet):

CBS Corporation Bans Ad Calling for Marijuana Legalization Over ‘Morals’

The fifteen-second ad, asserting that taxing and regulating the adult use and sale of marijuana would raise ‘billions of dollars in national revenue,’ was rejected out of hand

The ad, sponsored by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), would have appeared on CBS’s 42nd Street digital billboard beginning the first of February:

Accepting ads (however understated) from an anti-abortion group while rejecting ads from a pro-marijuana outfit is not only inconsistent, it’s bad business.

Here’s guessing the worm will turn on CBS, and soon.

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Oh Yes Katie Did

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

It’s not even the Mistress Katie photo in this month’s edition of Harper’s Bazaar. (Swell video of Katie’s big photo shoot here.)

What’s more disconcerting is the text of the article.

Representative sample:

She’s still rocking a young look, thanks to tennis once a week, Spinning, yoga, Pilates. She’s a little bored with Pilates, which she started up three years ago to help calm her back. Like most of American womanhood, she wouldn’t mind if she were taller, with thinner thighs. She doesn’t deny she believes in Botox: “I think if you want to do some tweaks here and there, there’s nothing wrong with that.” High-definition television has been kind to her, she says. “I think the fear factor of high def was overblown,” she says, but adds, “I think God has a wonderful way of making your eyes start to go as your face does. I really can’t see very well. Up close? Like in the mirror?” She giggles drily. “I always worry after I’ve done my makeup that I’m gonna look like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?“

Hey – What Ever Happened to Basic Decorum?

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Sticky Situation at the Boston Globe

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider are all charter members of the There-But-For-The-Grace-Of-God Club, so we almost never focus on the miscues, missteps, and mistakes of others.

That said, we do have to ask this question: How in the world did this sentence get into Brian McGrory’s Wednesday Boston Globe column about Wall Street bankers and their obscene bonuses?

They believe that since they’ve paid the government back, with interest, they are free to return to their glutinous ways.

That’s the way it appeared in the dead-tree edition of Wednesday’s Globe. The Globe website subsequently changed “glutinous” (adj. Of the nature of or resembling glue; sticky) to “gluttonous.”

Two important points:

1) Brian McGrory is a terrific columnist by virtually any meaure;

2) Anyone can have a brain freeze now and again.

But in this case, how many other brains saw this column and also froze?

There have always been mistakes in newspapers and there’s no shame in that. It’s impossible to flawlessly produce the volume of content in an average daily paper.

But there are more and more of these small slips as newspapers get squeezed by tough financial times. In the end, it’s not just foreign bureaus and investigative units that are disappearing from newspapers these days. It’s quality control in general.

That’s unfortunate. The little things mean a lot, too.

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Un(L)abashed

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Weekly Standard senior writer Matt Labash is about to hit the public radar screen.

Simon & Schuster has just published “Fly-Fishing With Darth Vader,” a collection of articles Labash has written over the past ten years or so. They are, in two words, uniformly excellent.

And now Labash rightly gets his 15 minutes in the self-cleaning oven that is the news media.

(Totally disregard this DOOFCON 4 interview in Esquire, a photo-finish of who’s more annoying: the interviewer or the interviewee.)

Regard, instead, this book review in the Wall Street Journal:

In a just world, Matt Labash would be celebrated as the heir to Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson and other writers in the 1960s and 1970s who were corralled under the rubric of “new journalism,” but, well, the world just isn’t just. Like the best of the new-journalism practitioners, Mr. Labash inhabits a story so thoroughly that readers feel as if they’re at his side, seeing events with his sharp eye, privy to his wisecracks, savoring moments when he reels in what feels like the truth. Sure, executing long-form journalism at this high level has about it a whiff of the Civil War re-enactment—an almost perfect evocation of a bygone era!—but there is also a certain thrilling defiance, displayed by both the writer and the magazine that lets him plow ahead, page after page.

Yes, mad props to the Weekly Standard for letting Labash run amok all these years.

For the past decade, Matt Labash’s work has been a private club for a select group of readers, including the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider (see here and here).

Now he’s going mainstream.

Don’t let the marble pillars get you, Matt.

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That Hopey-Changey Thing

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Fresh off her boffo book tour and big-bucks contract for Fox News commentary, Sarah Palin is hotter than the New Orleans Saints.

Her latest political meme:

“How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for you?”

Better question: How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for her?

Pretty well, if this Monday New York Times piece headlined “Palin in 2012? She Says Run Is Possible” is any indication.

Lede:

Sarah Palin said in an interview broadcast Sunday that she would consider a run for the White House in 2012 “if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family.”

In that interview on “Fox News Sunday,” the Times reported:

[Anchor Chris] Wallace took note of a poll showing Ms. Palin leading other potential Republican candidates with 16 percent of the respondents and asked if she was more knowledgeable on domestic and foreign matters now than during her run in 2008 as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

“I would hope so,” she replied.

So there’s that hopey thing in Sarah herself!

And how about this, at last weekend’s National Tea Party Convention in Nashville:

“America is ready for another revolution!” [Palin] told the crowd, prompting the first of several standing ovations.

Okay! There’s that changey thing!

Some years ago the Times ran a piece about Barack Obama consigliere David Axelrod headlined “Obama’s Narrator.” In it, Axelrod added this to the Book of Obama Zen Nonsense (see We Are the Change We’ve Been Waiting For):

[In] a sense Barack is the personification of his own message for this country . . . He is his own vision.

Similarly, in a sense Sarah Palin is the personification of her own message for this country.

She is her own vision.

Welcome to the rabbit hole.

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Dead Blogging the Super Bowl Ads

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of Campaign Outsider, we’ve always adopted a flood-the-zone approach to Super Bowl coverage. So the hardworking staff was on the Super Bowl ads like Brown on Williamson.

Overall impression: With far too many of these spots, the game wasn’t worth the candle. As in past years, the commercials were, for the most part, overproduced and underexciting (see, for starters, Budweiser’s “Human Bridge” ad).

(You can see them all here.)

But the hardworking staff is renowned for its optimism, so let’s start with the good ones.

The Snickers “You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry” ad was a hoot, and Betty White is a joy to see even in the mud. Volkswagen’s “Punch Buggy” ad had a good punchline, and Audi’s “Green Police” cleverly kept you wondering if it was sponsored by some tree muggerati  group.

Cementing the Automotive Division’s  dominance, Kia’s “Sock Monkey” spot (big shoutout to the red pickle guy from “Yo Gabba Gabba”) was, well, a dream. The Bud Light “Lost” ad worked too.

As for the rest:

• Weirdest Moment

When the careerbuilders.com’s “Casual Friday” cringer was immediately followed by Dockers‘ “Wear No Pants” toe-curler. What was it, the Tightey Whitey Bowl?

• Most predictable

GoDaddy.com’s always sophomoric and breast-obsessed spots, which actually were less T, more Ad this year, and Anheuser-Busch’s annual Clydesdale tearjerker, this time with a calf-turned-bull.

• My Life in 60 Seconds

DoveforMen, Google, and Monster.com all ran variations on “This Is Your Life” (the fiddling beaver won hands-down).  Memo to ad agencies: Get a life.

• What a Bringdown

The thoroughly overhyped Focus on the Family Tim Tebow “Celebrate family. Celebrate life” spot was subtle to the point of invisible, and nothing like what the news media had predicted.

But it did feature the Super Bowl Annual Terry Tate Memorial Out-of-Nowhere Tackle.

• The Dingbats Took My Baby

Why is there a new E*Trade spokesbaby?

What ad agency Baby Einstein came up with that?

• Stupid Bowl Trophy

Easy choice: the Doritos ads, individually and collectively.

• Stupor Bowl Trophy

A tie: Round Up and Shape Up.

Shut Up.

• Simper Bowl Trophy

Man up, you weenies in the Dodge Charger and FloTV spots.

See you next Super Bowl.

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