Last week's ad from Obama for America -- the "Firms" spot that made use of Mitt Romney's warbling, pitch-averse rendition of "America the Beautiful" -- received so much coverage for its execution and technical excellence that one could almost imagine we were standing on the threshold of a new era of political ads with exacting production values and a skillful, nuanced use of sound and editing.
Fortunately for everyone, the Democratic National Committee arrived just in the nick of time to remind us that political ads will remain the venue of tedious hacks.
Just as all the talk of the "Firms" ad was dying down, the DNC released a pair of ads of its own, titled "Mitt Dances Around the Issues Volume 1" and, as you might surmise, "Mitt Dances Around the Issues Volume 2." You know, like Guns N' Roses' "Use Your Illusion, Vol. 1 and 2." Except terrible.
Apparently the point that the DNC wanted to make with these ads is that Romney was ... uhm, well ... dancing around certain issues: his tax returns in the first spot, and his various responses to the auto bailout in the second. Rich territory to mine, certainly. But all you'll remember from this pair of ads is the goofy, torturous music and constant cutaways to the same two or three shots of Rafalca -- Ann Romney's dressage horse, which is headed to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
After watching the ads, you will probably look back on both and be gobsmacked to learn that each only lasts about a minute. They seem like they take forever.
Well, in addition to being poorly executed, ineffective and painful to watch, these DNC ads ended up offending Ann Romney, which doesn't seem like the most necessary thing to do and is fairly awkward anyway, because Ann Romney uses her horses as therapeutic relief from multiple sclerosis. So, as ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports, the DNC has had to apologize for these ads:
"Our use of the Romneys' dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did," DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told ABC News. "We were simply making a point about Governor Romney's failure to give straight answers on a variety of issues in this race. We have no plans to invoke the horse any further to avoid misinterpretation."
Yes, they probably just should have "invoked" the points they were trying to make about tax returns and auto bailouts, instead of burying them under unlistenable music and goofy dressage footage.
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