Sic Semper Tyrannis

The Chrysler/Detroit/Eastwood Ad

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

 

A couple of the commenters in the Superbowl open thread have remarked on the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood yesterday.  I watched it, as well as most of the other ads and the occasional bits of football that they broadcast in between them, with an Information Operations (IO) bubba.  Always interesting to see what the messaging professionals think of the professional messaging.  Anyhow it was pretty clear that this was one of the two or three best ads of the night (and I do agree that the Fiat ad was great too).  What immediately struck me was just 1) powerfully done ad, 2) is that Clint Eastwood?  Really?  Given the subject matter of the ad and what I think I know of his politics?, 3) I bet a whole lot of people are going to look at this as a political ad and specifically for President Obama's reelection.

What struck me the most was the politics behind the ad and what it would mean that Clint Eastwood, who is often identified as a Republican, but describes himself as a libertarian had agreed to do it.  As one can imagine, depending on one's political views, not to mention how one feels about  the Obama Administration stepping in and helping to manage Chrysler (and GM's) restructuring, seems to determine one's response to the ad.  Apparently Chrysler and the ad's makers actually tried to play down the politics by using footage of union supporters (with permission), but carefully avoiding footage of signs that would show it was explicitly union.  Karl Rove has weighed in against Mr. Eastwood's participation, so he may be voted off of the Republican Island or made an unperson or something....

So what say you all?  Good, bad, or otherwise on this ad?

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College (USAWC).  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of USAWC and/or the US Army

** Hat tip to the Crooks and Liars folks for the Marketwatch and Nation links and to Digby for the WaPo one.

Sharia Law is Not Closer to America than it Appears... Part VII: TV Boycott Edition

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

The Learning Channel (TLC) has a new reality show All American Muslim, that is going to follow members of several Muslim American families.  The show has been vaulted into controversy because Lowes Home Improvement has decided to participate in an advertising boycott organized by the Florida Family Association.  The FFA, led by David Caton a man who likes to carry a briefcase full of pornography around with him, has a history of engaging in controversial protests throughout FL, specifically the Tampa Bay area (I was born and raised in Tampa and have been watching the media coverage of this guy since I was in high school.  I can't find a link to any reporting on it, but I seem to recall him being stopped for a traffic offense and the cops found his trunk full of adult videos.  I may, however, be confusing this with a traffic stop that led to the prosecution of one of the local prosecutors.  Basically Hillsborough County/Tampa, FL seems to be ground zero for some really weird stuff!).  In the past couple of years he's caused a stir in regards to the accidental death of a local Muslim woman, as well as boycotting light rail plans as immoral (please remember this is Central Florida where former Congressman Feeney once referred to taxes as Satanic, so there's local precedent).

While many of the usual sources have waded in in support of the boycott, Lowes, and the right to be anti-Muslim (warning these links will take you to Geller and Spencer's websites, so click at your own risk). Some of the opposition is based on the fact that TLC isn't going to show any extremist families, just normal ones.  Because when I'm planning to take over the country, I just love having the reality TV crew filming me - wait, wasn't this what the Palin reality show was about?).  Of course Ms. Geller also quickly concluded that the attacker in Liege today was also a jihadi terrorist, not because he's actually a terrorist (apparently he's a career drug dealer), but because he has an Arabic sounding name...To their credit the Anti-Defamation League came out and condemned both the boycott and Lowes.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College (USAWC).  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of USAWC and/or the US Army.

Deluded lab rats - that's us.

Faute de mieux (that's French), I watched the linked program below. Barry Lando apparently thinks that the Chinese, Pakistanis, Iranians, Iraqi Shia, Saudis, etc. have made fools of the United States while wandering the corridors of a maze. This is what, allegory? Extended metaphor? It seems to imply that these people and governments are not purposeful, and that they are not reacting to what they have correctly perceived to be the inherent "intellectual" weaknesses of Americans taken as a whole. Oh, yes, I left out the Israelis and their 5th column. My bad.

I would argue that none of this could have happened if the marketing of pop culture had not become the major motif (Ruritanian?) of American life. Today we hear politicians describe their pursuit of constitutional office as a process of "branding" and "packaging" people who are; wavy haired, moneyed, pretty, minoritied, etc. through a process which assumes that selling government is like selling toothpaste.

Perhaps the political consultants are correct, but I would opine that such a theory can only work well in an atmosphere in which the electorate are so poorly informed and ignorant of basic history, civics (remember that?) geography, etc. that they can be sold dog s--t for toothpaste if the marketing campaign is well enough funded.