A couple of quickies

Content is slow these days, so maybe I shouldn't be breaking these reviews out, but I didn't have much to say about either of them, but I did want to say something about them. First from Nevada:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFsqkI5gg84&feature=player_embedded#at=17]

I find this ad incomprehensible. I get the connection they're trying to make, but it's either too subtle to too obtusely executed, that I'm confused. Then to top it off the candidate makes an appearance at the end, spouting political speak about raising "Obama's debt limit" and ending the nightmare. This concept was much better executed (on a bigger budget) in the "Chinese Professor spot," which I reviewed last year. That spot makes the threat seem real, this spot makes it seem, I don't know..., but there's no urgency, so it makes the candidate appear like a wingnut saying he's going to end a nightmare that seems comical rather than imminent.

http://vimeo.com/25410215

A friend sent me this video from Jon Huntsman the great sane hope or something like that. It was weird watching it, boring in parts, sublime in other sections, subtle in concept, but strangely heavy handed in execution -- I love the section that starts "dropped out of high school to travel with his band Wizard..." as Boris would say, "Guys, this is movie."

But for the most part, it felt both like it was trying too hard to make their points. Take the Wizard section. They could have given the viewed the information, "dropped out of high school...blah, blah, blah" and left the viewer to fill in the conclusion this guy is not your ordinary politician, instead they feel compelled to tell you that in the narration, in case you missed it. It's like they don't trust this unique concept which is something like a visual haiku nor do they trust the viewer.

And the whole America from 10,000 miles thing, I just didn't get it? What does it mean?  I did also like the backhanded  shots they took a their opponents.  Still, I found this video perplexing but a good lesson. And maybe thats's the lesson of the first video as well. You have to trust your concept, I know I make this point often, but it's clear in these videos they didn't. They liked the concepts, but didn't completely trust them to get the job done, so they embellished the message just so everyone got it, but in doing so they undermine the strength of the concept, it becomes neither fish nor fowl as my mom liked to say.

As I wrote to my friend somewhere in this Huntsman video there's a brilliant concept busting to get out.