Moctar Diarra
Link:http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1972
Campaign Ad Analysis Post & Paper Overview
The video I’ve chosen to analyze is the 1972 Nixon presidential campaign ad called McGovern’s Defense. This Nixon ad, based on the country’s defense was obviously made to discredit his democratic opponent, McGovern, in regard to his plans with the military, but what are the elements that make up this ad? Firstly, focusing on the visual, the 1st Three fourths of the video are dedicated to images of a toy army. This toy army being zoomed into, becomes the central figure of every shot. And in this miniature army we have Green Toy Soldiers, Replica navy men, planes, boats and even floats. The green soldiers are the first to be shown, taking up the entire screen with a face close up, which may be detailing their importance. All these green soldiers have distinguishable faces, although they are very simplistic and share similarities. The different sections of the soldiers that are supposed to stand together, are here divided into sections that make it easy for some to be pushed aside. The pushing aside begins when a seemingly omnipotent hand shows up to swipe aside the army just as the narrator starts speaking about President Nixon’s opponent, showing a possible link between the 2. The hand is active for most of the video, and on cue. Every time cutting back is mentioned, these hands take away most of the army, section by section. Here, we don’t get close ups like we had had prior to the Hand showing up, now the miniature servicemen all resemble each other with their hidden faces heavily shaded. This could make them seem easily disposable. (The lack of compassion for army men is an aspect that is criticized.) All of the sudden, the parts of the army that were pushed aside are all seen in different piles, again, without any close ups. The audio starts being more noticeable here because, first, the narrator talks about American security and stops discussing McGovern altogether, and then the music changes. The background music goes from just simple drums in the first part, the type of drums played during wars in the past by drummer boys, to a brass riddled fanfare once President Nixon is brought up. This is when the second part of the video begins, whilst this part is shorter than the first one, it is much more lively, because first of all we have real people and a real environment. Here, we don’t only hear about the candidate and his plan but we see him in the midst of the action, speaking to, and guiding army men (seemingly, a General). The narrator’s choice of words changes here as well, as he went from using abrasive words and phrases such as cut or cutting into, with many numbers and technical terms in between to a wholly different word cloud. In the second part the words used are key words such as peace, negotiate, believe, strength and America, right before Nixon’s name is brought to the screen.
Word Document Version : ad-analysis