Ad Associates Obama with Detroit Mayor

Presidential politics over the last decade has taken a remarkable turn towards the negative; smear ads overtly and shameless populate the airwaves as never before. These snipes have come to characterize the political discourse of the past decade and will forever stand out in the minds of those following the elections. Do these ads work? If so, what can candidates do to mitigate their effects? What role does the ever-present issue of race play in these ads? The coming issues of this blog will answer these questions and more by examining political ads as they have appeared in the 2008 election. Through this analysis, I hope to give the reader a much deeper understanding of the political issues and racial undertones present in today’s political advertising. Attack Ads in ‘08 will strive to give a deeper understanding of the true nature and effect of attack ads.

The first installment of this blog will focus on a recent ad associating Barack Obama with Detroit’s infamous “Hip-Hop Mayor”, Kwame Kilpatrick. To watch the ad, go to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SODIFZXIPA&feature=related
To understand the intent and purpose of this ad, one must first know the public image and symbolic persona now associated with Kwame Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick ended his mayorship as recent as September 4 of this election year, brought down by a series of scandals and convictions which scarred his reputation. He has been publicly associated with scandals of adultery, using public funds to sponsor wild parties, and even the murder of a young stripper. For many Michigan residents, he has come to represent a thuggish, corrupt persona that would stand out especially in the minds of white voters.

The Ad has been run only in Macomb county Michigan, an area heavily populated by largely white voters known as Reagan democrats who remain swing voters in the presidential race. By associating the Obama with Kilpatrick, whose reputation is well known among these voters, the ad serves to draw on racial fears and resentments without voters necessarily seeing it as racial. This type of implicit racial communication is reminiscent of the 1988 Willie Horton ad, the most well-known and widely recognized implicit appeal. The darkened mugshots featured in both ads are the most obvious similarity:

Through the use of these images, both ads effectively draw on racial stereotypes without the audience realizing its use of race. The true Impact of the Kilpatrick ad remains to be seen. If it behaves like past implicit racial appeals, the ad will likely be extremely effective, but only as long as its racial subject matter remains unnoticed by the public. When Jessie Jackson officially recognized the Willie Horton ad as racist, it almost immediately lost its effectiveness and would later come back to haunt President Bush (senior) in his second bid for the presidency. In the same way, the Kilpatrick ad has recently been exposed in a New York Times article, featured alongside other racially charged matters. However, the McCain campaign will not take the brunt for the exposition of the Kilpatrick ad; the advertisement was put out by a political action committee not directly associated with McCain.

Overall, I believe that the Kwame Kilpatrick ad will be effective, but only on a small scale. The ad has not been nationally publicized on the same scale as the Willie Horton ad, and is therefore more likely to remain implicit, allowing it to resound much more effectively with the targeted audience. However, it is unlikely that this kind of ad will play a large role in the grander scheme of the election; the public is growing ever more sensitive to race and is much more keen to recognize racial content when it appears in campaign advertising.


For further reading:

Rutenberg, Jim. 2008. “Pinpoint Attacks Focus on Obama” The New York Times retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/24groups.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=obama%20kilpatrick&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Oct. 21, 2008

Stevens, Andrew. 2008. “Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor of Detroit”. Retrieved from: http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/detroit_mayor.html