AMERICAblog: Anyone else see the word "Blacks" in this McCain ad?
RobertSeattle
· 1 year ago
The attack ad that came out yesterday - at 0:06 it kind of looks like Obama has a white "fez" hat on.
Milli
· 1 year ago
Also, "experience" could be read as "experiment"
clytemnestra
· 1 year ago
that was my thought too... but also if your dog whistling the inner white racist here "black experience" is just as bad.
tbhull
· 1 year ago
I thought ads like this and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmZ3o0Di7Go&eurl...) would come out earlier in the campaign. Next thing you know you will see Barrack in Cindy McCain's bedroom at night in some ad.
Brian
· 1 year ago
lol. That would not be good
doesn't she look the crypt keeper?
tbhull
· 1 year ago
on opiates
JohnInTexas
· 1 year ago
With a mallet and a wooden stake
B_R
· 1 year ago
Jed and I were talking about this yesterday, and concluded that they probably did this on purpose, but that us complaining about it can't actually help us, so there's nothing to do about it except mark it down in the long book of McCain sins and then we'll throw the penalty flags after the election.
moreleesafer
· 1 year ago
exactly. because it is subtle racism, they have plausable deniability. If you call them on it or complain about it then you are being "too sensitive" or seeing something you WANT to see.
This is how the suble racism works. it's the reason I have hypertension. If you don't hear from me on Nov 5th......you'll know I've had a stroke
They perfectly off set the Lack part so the B from Barack is directly in front of it. This is ridiculous.
sazerac
· 1 year ago
I noticed it immediately. They're scumbags.
Milli
· 1 year ago
What is he trying to accomplish here? Breaking News.......Obama is black! How could we have missed that?
McCain isn't even original. Tomorrow he'll be accusing Obama of plagiarism.
MNUSA
· 1 year ago
The Repubs have alienated most people with the exception of the religious right and racists. Do they think they can win with those demographics? Actually, I hope they keep this kind of dirty campaigning up. They'll just keep alienating more and more and more until they become extinct. I won't buy laundry detergent if their advertising offends me; why would I vote for a candidate of a political party that runs an offensive campaign?
MyVoice
· 1 year ago
Chris Matthews was dead on last night on the Countdown show after the ad. He was asking what more is expected of a black candidate to get the white vote. He said here is a man who has come from the bottom, overcame obstacles, has a good family, and is a good man. What more could you ask for?
moreleesafer
· 1 year ago
That's it.
That pretty much sums up the life of the average black male in America.
To quote the Scarecrow from "The Wiz"
"You can't win, child, You can't get even, and you can't get out of the game."
The only thing they can complain about is his "arrogance". Him having the audacity to actually want to aspire to be president is "uppity". He is unintimidated by them and they can't stand it. He believes he is a child of God and refuses to be less than his full, wonderful self and they can't stand it. He scares them not only because refuses to exist in his "place" that they have designated for him in THEIR world. But because they sense that if he wins this election the dominoes will start to fall, the genie will be out of the bottle, people will once again and forever after be interested in what the hell is going on in Washington and will not simply sit down, shut up, and hand over their tax money like good little serfs-for Bush and his ilk to spend as they like.
Not this time. Not this election.
henrythefifth
· 1 year ago
What "honor he had left"? That well has been dry for years.
skeptic
· 1 year ago
From honorable POW to scum. Amazing what ambition and greed will make a man do in desperation.
Who would really want this guy to be president of the USA. No honor and no integrity.
stefanzo
· 1 year ago
wow
and darkened skin tones as well
meemers
· 1 year ago
This isn't even subtle. Its obvious! I am a graphic artist and I know exactly what the had in mind when they purposely lowered the opacity to fade out those sentences! They are appealing to the racists and believe me there are many. It's bullshit like this that makes me ashamed of our country! It seems as though our whole country died 9/11/01. These last 8 years have been so surreal! A part of me tries not to get to exited about Obama leading in the polls because I think that there is going to be something to sabotage this election.
Wolfsinger
· 1 year ago
Good Grief! When you're right you're right! These last 8 years have indeed been surreal! I feel like I am holding my breath and everyday life has become a distraction to whats important. Every poll. Every review of every speech.
I haven't looked at a clock, much less a calendar this intensely since waiting for my 2 second grade math class bell to ring on the last day before Christmas vacation!
mckathiki
· 1 year ago
And they seem to have chosen a photo of Senator Obama that looks as close to "mean" as I've ever seen. These people are despicable.
kfd313
· 1 year ago
jeebus. i didn't notice it at first but now that you point it out. and the dead giveaway is that this was enitely intentional is that they used his first name, not Obama. who calls him "barack"? Oh right, ashley todd....... see what happens, rethugs, when you try to play w/ letters and subliminal racist smears? you look like unhinged lunatics.
scottinsf
· 1 year ago
Exactly! They normally ALWAYS use his last name. Good point.
Wolfsinger
· 1 year ago
McCain with any honor left? You've got to be kidding. That train left the station years ago. The list of lies and hypocrisies too long to mention here.
OT: Hopefully, after Obama takes the oath of office, this nation can begin to bring back education that Reagan and Bush I&II destroyed. To once again teach children critical thinking skills and to beat back the tsunami wave of anti-intellectualism, and "man and dinosaur lived together on our 6 thousand year old Earth" lunacy that the Christian right Republicans have been awash in for 30 plus years. Then too, maybe we can teach about and learn from the disaster that is the McCain /Palin ticket so that it never happens again in this country. VOTE!
sukabi1
· 1 year ago
Not to quibble John (oh alright... I do mean to quibble), McCain's "brand" was always a myth based on a lie and embellished by his adoring media fans.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Racist bastards. McWhore has no honor and neither does his Aryan Bitch.
not only that, but they darken his image almost every time now, and use menacing pictures any way they can.
McCain is a despicable man.
MNUSA
· 1 year ago
The Repubs are doing the same thing to Madia, running for Congress. He's an East Indian-American.
julls
· 1 year ago
I also see the word RAP that may look like RAPE to some bigot.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Also from Sully:
George Will gets it:
Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: "So, who is the villain?"
This time, it's McCain. Why is Will never mentioned among those conservatives appalled by McCain? Are they going to call George Will a leftist now?
Dave of the Jungle
· 1 year ago
John "Respectful Campaign" McCain has proven himself as shameless as Karl Rove and his deceitful propaganda.
No better than maggots.
MNUSA
· 1 year ago
It's the first thing you see. Not very subtle! Guess what, Repubs, you're going to lose "big-time" this election. Obama is up by 19 points in Minnesota.
TheAngryFag
· 1 year ago
I honestly don't see it. If you are referring to the "B" in Barack and then jumping down to the word "lacks" then I would have to disagree just based on simple design especially in light of the fact that all we see is a single screenshot out of context of the segment. While I am definitely no friend of John McCain's, I think some of it is looking for something to attack and you're going to find it when you want to.
Wolfsinger
· 1 year ago
Its what others have mentioned below. Its using his FIRST name instead of Obama. Its ENLARGING the word LACKS and placing the light to shine left to right with the B in Barack so that your eyes see an "impression" of what the ad says instead of the narrative. The same science that goes into billboard advertising. The use of color. The positioning and size of letters. The way our eyes move over images when light is shinning as, our eyes like our ears respond first to what is brightest and loudest. Believe me, that ad was not put together that way by accident. It was by design. It is the same Christian right Republican method as when they support all the hate speech and inflammatory wording and then, when some deranged whack job comes along and acts on their hate, the Republicans say "Oh! Hey! It wasn't me!"
TheAngryFag
· 1 year ago
I hardly see someone wasting money trying to figure out the correct angle and speed of a gradient to make this kind of message. They are different sizes and therefore, design-wise, are two different elements because they are contrasting. Now if the "B" in Barack was the same size as the type in "Lacks" then you could have an argument.
If it was intentional, it was a crappy job IMO. There are a lot more effective ways to do that.
Ann_in_KC
· 1 year ago
I saw it immediately. Being a graphic designer I can say it doesn't take all that much time or money for someone who does tricks like this day in and day out to draw people's eye wherever you want to. Painters, of course, do this too. In this case you see it but may discount it, but it really is a small stretch because "LACKS" is huge, indented, leaving more than enough room to see the smaller "B" above. Yeh, we all know he's black, but apparently that campaign wants to remind those who have gotten to know him these last 2 yrs. or those deciding to vote for him now, especially in Ohio, PA, VA, because if they're voting for him, they must of forgotten!
moreleesafer
· 1 year ago
it's like those optical illusion pictures. Not everyone can see it, I think. That is part of what gives them plausible deniability. Even if you don't outright see it, if you are suceptible to the message you will see it. whether you are a racist and welcome the message or one who is offended and reject it as evil.
It is subliminal, for sure and created to work on the "blink" concept.
kathycalculates
· 1 year ago
Obama is black??? Can I take my vote back?
frank14
· 1 year ago
What happens at .06 is an image of Barack that shows a white area around his head, supposedly a lighting effect. But in the flashed image, what you perceive is a "turban". Or at least that was what I saw and repeatedly saw when I let it play at regular speed.
Then something else very odd happens immediately afterwards. There is a full front image of Barack's. face while the voice over is finishing his sentence with the words: "...lies the truth" (at .06). And at that precise point (at .08) two sets of blurry letters appear on the bottom of the screen, one set much larger than the other. However, the viewer cannot decipher them (at least not consciously). Then we move on to the "B lacks" part. Can anyone figure out what those two sets of letters are supposed to mean? Or rather what they were trying to communicate at some sublminal level to the viewer? You don't waste money putting letters in an ad unless they have a purpose!!
PAULinDC
· 1 year ago
the smaller letters are the word "THE" and the larger ones are "RUT", presumably meant to begin showing the word "TRUTH" to match the voiceover. The whole word never fully appears though. The whole video is dark - at least the parts with Obama's picture - which surprises me. The words don't ever completely materialize, no matter how many times I slo-mo it. I originally thought that John/Ari were overblowing the issue until I saw the video. The "B LACKS" part is prominent and the rest of his name and the other words never visually materialize.
I'm not any kind of expert on subliminal message, but the quality of the You Tube version of this video - as posted - certainly seems to rely on subliminal message. The explicit message compromised by the quality of the video.
wolfhound2
· 1 year ago
I saw the B above Lack immediately! Having viewed it about 10 times now, it is really not subtle at all. Subliminal like "rats" in Democrats in 2004 only this is much more disgusting and racially communicated with his darker face.
PAULinDC
· 1 year ago
OT: The blinds are back up in the McCain campaign HQ in Arligton, VA after an unprecedented 3 days of bunker-like behavior.
The Economist Issues 'Wholehearted' Endorsement Of Obama
lynchie
· 1 year ago
There isn't a single line McCain and the Republicans won't cross. We all posted on how this was bound to happen, yet, somewhere inside we kept hoping that it could be kept to the issues. Argue about your plan against the Obama plan, but you have had nothing of substance to say since you started this whole campaign, going right back to the primaries and the reason is you are a person without substance. Your whole life has been based on the illusion of being a hero as if somehow getting shot down and captured is better than the 58,000 who died or the hundreds of thousands who served in Vietnam. Anyone who fought in that useless war still carries the scars but that does not make you any more heroic for what happened to you or to the rest of our youth who were drafted and shipped to that hell hole. You have temper issues that have never been dealt with and the more I watched the You Tube examples the more I am believing it is because of guilt, maybe the propaganda tapes, maybe being a kept man or just maybe it is because you don't have the guts to deal with the truth--you are a shallow, bitter, imitation of a man.
Catsandbeer.com
· 1 year ago
YES! Didn't realize it was a new ad, but saw it for the first time last night at a bar for the world series game - they didn't have the sound on for commercials so I wasn't really paying attention, but glanced at it and pointed it out to my friend - my initial quote was I can't believe how shameless they are, which I then revised when I realized that after everything that's come before this, I of course CAN believe how shameless they are - nothing is beneath them
atariageguy
· 1 year ago
Oh please, stop it. The answer to your question is "no". This is stretching beyond belief, which you finally stopped doing about two months ago.
You were doing so well for a while.
There's really a need to resort to this fake "lets find some anagrams" crap? There are, and you have rightly mentioned them - tons of quite real ugly McCain antics.
Mentioning this nothing - really, something completely made up, like looking for three "6"s in a figure of the national debt - makes you look desperate, like Pam Geller with Barack X.
I just don't see the need to go there other than to make you look less credible. But you've done that before. It's a shame.
roschelle
· 1 year ago
McCain's camp attempted to smear Barack for his affiliation with Rashid Khalidi who's only offense is his ethnicity (Palestian) and his opposition to the military occupation by Israel of his homeland. And that's offensive because why?
via
· 1 year ago
No, I didn't see it, but yes, I think it is intentional. Even the 's' is faint, so it looks like Obama's head and the word 'black' next to it.
As unprincipled and nasty as Wc is, like W, I wonder how much of what goes on in his campaign/administration he knows about. I think Rove and the other handlers understand that they are both such uninvolved, disinterested dipshits that they do as they please.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Via: I agree. These two turds have no clue. The arise in the morning, the wives take off their depends and wash their balls, smack them in the back of the head and shoo them out the door to create more havoc. McCain is not a man who strikes me as being organized or involved. That is way too much work and as exhibited by his marks in the Naval Academy knowledge is not a strong suit. He is quite content to let it all happen around him and that also gives him some wiggle room if the shit hits the fan. His conscience is clear and he can cling to his belief that if he didn't do it, it therefore does not touch him personally.
22state
· 1 year ago
It's even worse. Look at about 8 seconds in- Obama is a thief.
minik
· 1 year ago
I just got back from voting Obama in FL.
But I gotta say, I think you guys are really reaching here. There is nothing you can prove other than a slightly subliminal accident. From looking at this there is no way I could say this was intentional.
Let's try not to be extremist paranoid wack jobs ok? We can leave that title to Palin.
kirkaracha
· 1 year ago
Similar to the Bush's campaign's RATS ad against Gore. A giant "RATS" (from "bureaucrats") drops in at about :24.
kookyb
· 1 year ago
A few weeks back I noticed in an anti-McCain ad as random letters slowly got filled in that I saw the word Crazy. I went back and paused on it and my friends agreed. Ads do stuff like this all the time.
red_dwarf
· 1 year ago
I see you're new around here.
jwh186
· 1 year ago
Absolutely. Andrew Sullivan had a post about this ad on his blog yesterday and I wrote him an email with that very point.
I forget the candidate and state but there is a story out demonstrating the Republicans intentionally darkened the face of an Indian man (Ashwin), running for congress, in their TV and print attack ads of him.
Stevens
· 1 year ago
There's no doubt that the type was laid out to purposely emphasize "bLACKS". Any good typographer (like me) would catch that.
Reminds me of the McCain ad awhile back that has Obama standing in front of crowd holding up letters that spell C-H-A-N-G-E....except the E is clipped out and the C is heavily shadowed. What you are left with is "HANG".
All Comments
doesn't she look the crypt keeper?
This is how the suble racism works. it's the reason I have hypertension. If you don't hear from me on Nov 5th......you'll know I've had a stroke
McCain isn't even original. Tomorrow he'll be accusing Obama of plagiarism.
That pretty much sums up the life of the average black male in America.
To quote the Scarecrow from "The Wiz"
"You can't win, child,
You can't get even,
and you can't get out of the game."
The only thing they can complain about is his "arrogance". Him having the audacity to actually want to aspire to be president is "uppity". He is unintimidated by them and they can't stand it. He believes he is a child of God and refuses to be less than his full, wonderful self and they can't stand it. He scares them not only because refuses to exist in his "place" that they have designated for him in THEIR world. But because they sense that if he wins this election the dominoes will start to fall, the genie will be out of the bottle, people will once again and forever after be interested in what the hell is going on in Washington and will not simply sit down, shut up, and hand over their tax money like good little serfs-for Bush and his ilk to spend as they like.
Not this time. Not this election.
Who would really want this guy to be president of the USA. No honor and no integrity.
and darkened skin tones as well
I haven't looked at a clock, much less a calendar this intensely since waiting for my 2 second grade math class bell to ring on the last day before Christmas vacation!
OT: Hopefully, after Obama takes the oath of office, this nation can begin to bring back education that Reagan and Bush I&II destroyed. To once again teach children critical thinking skills and to beat back the tsunami wave of anti-intellectualism, and "man and dinosaur lived together on our 6 thousand year old Earth" lunacy that the Christian right Republicans have been awash in for 30 plus years. Then too, maybe we can teach about and learn from the disaster that is the McCain /Palin ticket so that it never happens again in this country. VOTE!
That's sofa king creative!
McCain is a despicable man.
George Will gets it:
Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: "So, who is the villain?"
This time, it's McCain. Why is Will never mentioned among those conservatives appalled by McCain? Are they going to call George Will a leftist now?
No better than maggots.
If it was intentional, it was a crappy job IMO. There are a lot more effective ways to do that.
Even if you don't outright see it, if you are suceptible to the message you will see it. whether you are a racist and welcome the message or one who is offended and reject it as evil.
It is subliminal, for sure and created to work on the "blink" concept.
Then something else very odd happens immediately afterwards. There is a full front image of Barack's. face while the voice over is finishing his sentence with the words: "...lies the truth" (at .06). And at that precise point (at .08) two sets of blurry letters appear on the bottom of the screen, one set much larger than the other. However, the viewer cannot decipher them (at least not consciously). Then we move on to the "B lacks" part. Can anyone figure out what those two sets of letters are supposed to mean? Or rather what they were trying to communicate at some sublminal level to the viewer? You don't waste money putting letters in an ad unless they have a purpose!!
I'm not any kind of expert on subliminal message, but the quality of the You Tube version of this video - as posted - certainly seems to rely on subliminal message. The explicit message compromised by the quality of the video.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/30/ithe-e...
The Economist Issues 'Wholehearted' Endorsement Of Obama
You have temper issues that have never been dealt with and the more I watched the You Tube examples the more I am believing it is because of guilt, maybe the propaganda tapes, maybe being a kept man or just maybe it is because you don't have the guts to deal with the truth--you are a shallow, bitter, imitation of a man.
You were doing so well for a while.
There's really a need to resort to this fake "lets find some anagrams" crap? There are, and you have rightly mentioned them - tons of quite real ugly McCain antics.
Mentioning this nothing - really, something completely made up, like looking for three "6"s in a figure of the national debt - makes you look desperate, like Pam Geller with Barack X.
I just don't see the need to go there other than to make you look less credible. But you've done that before. It's a shame.
As unprincipled and nasty as Wc is, like W, I wonder how much of what goes on in his campaign/administration he knows about. I think Rove and the other handlers understand that they are both such uninvolved, disinterested dipshits that they do as they please.
But I gotta say, I think you guys are really reaching here. There is nothing you can prove other than a slightly subliminal accident. From looking at this there is no way I could say this was intentional.
Let's try not to be extremist paranoid wack jobs ok? We can leave that title to Palin.
I forget the candidate and state but there is a story out demonstrating the Republicans intentionally darkened the face of an Indian man (Ashwin), running for congress, in their TV and print attack ads of him.
Reminds me of the McCain ad awhile back that has Obama standing in front of crowd holding up letters that spell C-H-A-N-G-E....except the E is clipped out and the C is heavily shadowed. What you are left with is "HANG".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JYm72ZhBQ&feat...