McCain's Ad Team are Mad Men

Can anyone stop the madness?

As depicted on the award-winning AMC show, people in the advertising industry in the 1960s are utterly despicable. So is McCain's ad team. To go by their latest ad, they are willing to say and do anything to win.

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Notwithstanding its mixed messages -- what do celebrity starlets have to do with offshore drilling and isn't it good that people around the world want to hear what Obama has to say? -- this ad is beyond despicable. McCain supports higher prices for coal and natural gas -- assuming he is not abandoning his cap and trade system as everyone else in his campaign alredy has. And, of course, coastal drilling will do nothing to lower energy prices even in 2030.

But the media has been letting McCain just make stuff up on oil drilling. So why not on everything else, too?

One more question -- exactly who is this "John McCain" guy who would approve such a message? Somebody, strictly Rove Bush league, I'm afraid.

Comments

[MaryT63]

Obama needs to maintain the high road in this campaign but he needs surrogates to carry this heavy load for him. I watch CNN and MSNBS. The dems talking heads are luke warm at best. They stammer, they struggle to come up w anything to attack McBush. The repub talking heads go on and on attacking Obama. On one show the host had to ask the dems' strategist 'hey when are you going to step in here'. Then the guy started whining about what McBush camp was doing. He was pathetic, but this is what's out there speaking for Obama on cable 24/7. Sure there are a few who are aggressively speaking for Obama but they get little air time. So far only Olbermann and Rachael are consistently and aggressively going after McBush.
Obama team - get your DC dems talking heads off their butts and speak the truth about McBush. Why are you allowing your message to get mudded by not only the repubs but the dems talking heads as well. We gotta win this thing!!!

[neocon666]

How many people could John McCain attract to hear him speak in Europe?

[blaising]

You'll notice that in the television series "Mad Men" their client, Nixon, got beat. They bad-mouthed the "youth movement" as a passing fad.

[fleaba]

I don't really care about this ad. I care that the voting machines work.

[Joseph Romm - Huffpost Blogger]

Note to Deschanel:

I actually just watched the entire first season in the last two weeks. It is a terrific show in the same way that "The Sopranos" was -- and frankly I can't imagine why HBO turned it down. Yes, you get to see the moral complexity of depraved people.

The characters are by and large despicable as human beings -- certainly the "hero" Don Draper is very Tony-Soprano-esque, and Pete Campbell and Roger Sterling (who even makes a pass at Draper's wife) ain't much better. So, too, Peggy Olsen.

Now, that said, it is true that they tend to be more despicable in their real lives than in their advertising -- except in the case of the cigarette advertising, but that is merely the exception that proves the rule. They have no obligation other than to the product. When the product is useful, like the Kodak slide carousel, they can be almost poetic (albeit in an ironically hypocritical way). When a product is not useful (like cigarettes and Nixon) they are supremely cynical.

The analogy with the McCain people may not be perfect, but it's pretty good, with one small exception. I would describe Don Draper as a soulless man with a soul. The McCain folks don't even have a soul.

[AdvancedDegree]

I am cringing as I write this, but Obama needs Hillary. She would go after McCain with a vengeance, thus allowing Obama to stay above the fray. He could remain presidential while she "swift boated" McCain. He could lay out his vision for the country while Hillary gives McCain his "3am" awakening. Obama could walk softly while Hillary carried the big stick.

Sadly, I must cheer for Obama - Clinton 2008.

[unitedstates]

well the policy points in the ad are true.

[Gma11]

LOL!!

[NewsCorpse]

McCain's ad men are doing Obama a favor. They are presenting him as attractive and popular in the video. The words will soon be forgotten, but viewers will retain the impressions from the visuals.

The reason McCain is sinking to making exclusively negative ads is that he wants to create enough controversy to get free media. He only pays for a handful of airings and then waits for the news nets to replay it over and over for nothing.

More detail here: http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=989

[surfcitysteven]

Is there a way to force Fox to air an Obama ad everytime they air a McCain ad at no charge? Somekind of fairness doctrine?

[hawkseye]

Sadly, no. Equal time rules do not apply to cable stations. But, it seems to me that a case could be made against cable stations who give free ads to candidates. No point complaining until Bush administration is outta there. In 173 days, 1 hour and 2 minutes.

[sandman323]

This is becoming sad. This ad is stupid, but pales in comparison to the RNC ad that mocks an entire nation (Germany), while attacking Obama.

The MSM seems to not care, however, because McCain was a POW. Someone, besides Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, needs to speak out on the lies and distortion presented by this shamefull campaign.

[hawkseye]

According to Olbermann this evening, print media types are pointing fingers at McCain.

[liberalloons]

How are they mad men? There are dozens of posts mentioning his ad and he is getting free air time.

[rudyinbama]

Obama is asleep at the wheel here.
McCain is "approving" the kind of commercials so dishonest, they used to be only done by surrogates.
Wake up, folk - McCain is actually dirtier than Bush.
Complaining loses elections - get a strategy fast.

[cadawa]

If you need any more proof that our media is controlled by the illegitimate Bush junta, their willingness to air this garbage should proof positive. At the same time they refuse to air factual issue ads that are in the national interest.
That there are men and women who are low enough to create these ads and that they would coalesce around McCain is a no brainer.
That the media are so completely in their thrall that they have thrown away all pretense to having standards and sacrifice any semblence of credibility is much more surprising.

[gwpriester]

Hey, c'mon. I was an ad man, art director, in the late 60s and some us weren't despicable. Then again some were.

McCain does not have a single campaign issue that has any traction with the voters. So what do his Rovian advisors suggest? The same thing elected the C student, frat boy from a wealthy family, to whom his military obligations were a joke, and defeat a person who served honorably in Viet Nam.

These republicans keep using this slime and deflect (slime your opponent and deflect attention away from your candidate) because it works. And because we, the smarter party, have not found a way to neutralize it.

[Deschanel]

I agree that McCains ads are lying, deceitful smears. But you haven't seen more than ten seconds of "Mad Men" when you say this:

"As depicted on the award-winning AMC show, people in the advertising industry in the 1960s are utterly despicable­."

Uh, no they are not. Watch the show, get back to us. There are moral complexities that the show takes pains to illustrate- like cigarette ads- but you could not call any character on Mad men "despicable".
I think you're just tossing in a "hook" to an acclaimed, current show you haven't actually watched much of.

[fleaba]

Characters Getting drunk at lunch and puking in front of top clients. Lying to clients, colleagues and themselves. Stepping out on wives and girlfiriends. This is standard behavior for anyone in a 12 step program or ex-frat boy. Sorry to say , but it is not complex. or even ambiguous. These boys lost their compass and typically have not asked for direction.

I have watched the entire first season. It's good, but the characterization of women is off.. . The women portrayed are all like sheep and I know for a fact, that all the women then did not act like victims during that time period. I think the writers need to get some information from women who actually lived during the period, since they have pretty much generalized the entire lot. It is a sort of redux of the Sopranos. (which I loved) but it's time for stronger parts for women. It would be great if they introduced some Columbia biz grad who is a woman who kicks butt. That is not a longshot.

[snesich]

Actually, I'm a huge Mad Men fan. And I think that Roger and Pete are the very definition of "despicable". I agree with you about the rest of the characters.