Reading The Celeb Video: Exploding Obama At The Subliminal Level

I think we are really being played if -- in analyzing "Celeb," the McCain Obama-attack video -- we go so far as unearth the racist sexual stereotypes but overlook the possible allusions to violence itself.

Here's where I think this video is most insidious....

At the surface level, the message is that Obama is nothing but a celebrity, an idol, a cultural phenomenon.  In fixing the viewer absolutely on that premise, however, we are prompted to see the incessant flashes in this video as exclusively attributable to Obama the paparazzi magnet and Kodak moment.  As well, Obama's walk down that impressively long entry ramp at the Tiergarten also compliments his juxtaposition with photo icons Britney and Paris as a lens-loving runway model.

But then, watching the video without the sound, and looking at it slowly, bit-by-bit (lessening the "distraction" of the celebrity meme, and considering the subliminal allusions hitting the brain as fast as the scenery from a speeding train), the imagery starts to suggest other inferences.

Beginning with a sequence of flashes paired with isolated hands, followed immediately by a sequence (above) from what looks like the last Democratic Convention (where Obama made his first major jolt, but where the scene itself bears next-to-no direct connection to Obama having his picture taken), now all the "pop-pop-pop" and the violently-sensory "flash-flash-flash" seem indistinguishable from explosions.

With those fireworks serving as a (possible Denver) table setting, and just on-the-other-side of the seductive Britney/Paris segment, we arrive at this chronological sequence in which Obama is mingling with the Berlin crowd, a single nervous-looking Secret Service agent fixed off the candidate's left shoulder:

Again, following the Rovian admonition to block out the words (removing and freeing up the fuller visual value of the imagery from the advertisement's oral/textual envelope), I don't even want to think what this looks like to me -- except to say that, I wouldn't count Hillary as Obama's only political assailant with the instinct to turn off the electricity.

For more of the visual -- including my take on the Celeb video promoting Obama As Sexual Predator -- visit BAGnewsNotes.com.

Killing The Electricity (BNN)
Campaign Visuals In the Age of Facebook (American Photo)

(screen grabs: McCain For President)

Comments

[quailsternm]

I was glad to see someone writing about this beyond the silliness of the comparison to Paris and Brittany. The flashing images bothered me much more with the most troubling one coming at 9 seconds into the run, and staying on screen for only a second. It is a Black person in what appears to be a military fatigue shirt or jacket. Once could argue that the Secret Service Agent was there simply because he had been on screen with Barack at that moment, but this other image has no logical reason to be in the spot other than fear. It seems to me that they want the viewer to see Barack as appealing to a more sinister image of the street, militant Black.
It is sad that the media is choosing to ignore these more subliminal messages in favor of the titilation of the phallic imagery, and the Black man/White girl connection. The real problem with this ad is what lies just beneath the surface, and that aspect of it is where the coverage should be.

[wayoutleft]

it's all so very much simpler than this- albeit subtler.
the ad of course was designed to create racial controversy focused on obama. but that's not the overarching purpose - which nobody on this site has identified.

what the practiced hands of ailes, et al. have magically and ingeniously done is taken george bush out of the election. they couldn't believe their dumb luck when the democrats stupidly turned the spotlight away from the wreckage of 8 bush years onto the supercharismatic barack obama. dems as usual played into the hands of the ailes shops like rubes and turned attention away from bush all by themselves. hence the anti-bush coalition will never really gel because we are conducting a referendum on barack obama instead of a referendum on bush. look, i'm a green supporting left local dems, also black. i'm not trying to goad anybody. but the other guys are just smarter. i am sorry to say it.

[BethStuart]

The ad does remind me a lot of the Harold Ford ad featuring an African-American male politcian and a young blond woman. It certainly looks to me like race baiting with strong sexual overtones. I seem to recall McCain said he was proud of the ad.

[t9chi]

Here we go again. The American People are going to fall for these Rovian tactics and give us 8 more years of McSame.

[nubret2008]

To be honest, despite the text messages and off commentator, the video is rather pro-obama on the visual level. One significant scene that is immediately sored in the subconscious is Obama in front of uncountable people waving American flags.

This is such a patriotic picture! I guess McCains people really did a disservice to his campaign. How can you brandmark someone as being unpatriotic when so many people cheering an wave flags in fron of him?

[GrainOSand]

The entire story would not be relevant if those of us with eyes, ears, and a sense of the evil amongst us, could not see the potential of the analysis.

My daily reminder is to keep my emotions in check concerning this election. It remains a difficult task because of the many raw issues that coincide with the execution of this election; issues like gender, race, religion, poverty, greed, official corruption, war, hypocrisy in democracy, etc...

Sad is the concise commentary; just sad. God, shake some sense into America, and bring justice to the evil, this I pray.

[Gma11]

. . . along with the connotations of violence against our first AA candidate for the presidency.

[backhandpath]

I agree 100%. I also did the frame by frame and this flash sequence is really creepy--from the hands on the left it travels right into his face and completely disappears him, erases Obama.
I also saw a weird thing behind Britanny, this strange governess looking prudish uncomfortable woman holding it seems the umbrella...indeed many of the faces in those shots are ugly. But that woman almost looks like she is about to "hit" the celebrity from behind. Strange looking.

I agree with Michael too that the girls are a half-red herring, that the actual function of the ad is subliminal violence against the candidate. All the faces in those scenes look like they are at an assassination, even when it is moving at normal speed.
There is no doubt when you pop the play button frame for frame in slower sequence--it is deliberate and meaningful and violent.
Suggesting? Remember when the SS was letting their guard down earlier this year? Dropping the searches a full hour before he would take the stage?

Thank you Michael. We must protect.

[Bart Motes - Huffpost Blogger]

Didn't get any of that but I did think: young white women, black man, two conspicuous phallic symbols. You have to watch these things like someone will watch them in a sports bar: sound off, out of the corner of your eye.

[JohnIII]

I've been an art director in an ad agency for 13 years. Most of this crap is cranked out so fast you don't have time to think. The editing jobs overall have been pretty sloppy. I don't believe any of the stuff you're seeing was intended.

While your at it, put on Dark side of the Moon while you watch the Wizard of Oz.

[waitforme]

This is preposterous -- and rude -- and dangerous. I think EVERYTHING in this video was intended. I think these political videos on this level are extremely well-thought-out and the subliminal messages intended. The article is well put. The video rivals Hillary's 'I don't think Obama is a Muslim .....as far as I know'. Subtle flashes and mentions (Hillary's Bobby Kennedy's assassination mention -- beyond the pale) which cast doubt, which may even incite. McCain, now, is certainly pulling out all the stops in his craven and cowardly, desperate organ-ic panic.

When will a brave law enforcement officer take this kind of incitement as having passed into the 'incitement to murder' category and stop it in its tracks?

[JohnIII]

Believe what you want. I'm just giving you the reality of editing in a fast-paced environment.
Some things are meant. Some are purely accidental.

[mosh]

Your concept that 'a brave law enforcement officer. . . . stop this in its tracks' is even more frightening than the thought of karl rove planting subliminal messages in republican ads. Yikes! Talk about a brave new world -

Wait till you see their next dandy - 'the one' - ain't nothing subtle about it.

[Gma11]

You "sound" like a Republican art director in an ad agency - or a PUMA?

[JohnIII]

What's your point? If I wanted to waste my time, I could go through an Obama spot frame by frame and see a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't intended either.

[DanBest]

Have you ever heard of the term Mis an Scene? I find it hard to believe you are an art director and don't have a clue about how powerful imagery can be. And to say that most of this stuff is hacked out? You mean to tell me that McCain's people would spend hundreds of thousands of their precious dollars for something that was hacked out? You honestly think that someone didn't pour over every frame to make sure the message they wanted got out? Now who is being naive? Incidentally I'm an editor and you don't know what you're talking about. Will you please tell us what agency you work for so that I never end up with your "work"?

[JohnIII]

Yes. I see it everyday with major corporations. The reality is that advertising is not that efficient. Money is wasted all the time. Usually, at the agencies expense. When I review an edit, it is in real time. Not frame by frame. There are times i will go into a single frame to clean a few things up. But ultimately, the spot is judged in real time.

These are my personal opinions. I'm not going to get my agency involved. I'm not a spokesperson for them. Only myself.

I find it hard to believe that you have never worked on gut instinct on a tight deadline,
where you utilized some editing technique just because it looked cool. Who is being naive?

[wayoutleft]

mis en scene... french referring to the elements creating- in total- a recognizable, comprehensible impression of time place and action.

[demfriend]

That subliminal and the videos using the hidden meanings with the voice over not matching has long bee used to manipulate us into buying crap we would not even want had we not been influenced somehow. Too many think this is bunk science and we are not so easily moved to action but we are because advertising works doesn't it? How often do you get hungry after watching the 30 second ad with food in it? More often than we would like to believe. Re watching the ad of McCains does offer up more questionable thoughts and having the reoccurring nightmare that someone who is a crazed racist might see his history filled with his name on the bullet that would put him there it does give one pause. Whether the object of the ad is two ditzy white women with a black man or even more dangerous it's poor taste at best and vile hate filled at worst.

[mosh]

Yup, its a loser on every level.

[SpectCon]

Obama needs a liberal VP as an insurance policy.

[Opinionater]

Don't look to the media for help calling McCain to task for the truth, they are busy lining up advertisers.

[Gma11]

And their associated with the oil companies through the conglomerates they are embedded in.

[busybeez]

We are being naive if we don't realize that there are a lot of sublimal messages purposely placed in ads. These sickening messages are so unworthy of a presidential candidate. Shame on McCain!

[trubluelefty]

This is rather terrifying. I hope that we are all reading something into this that doesn't actually exist. I wish that John Mc would live up to being what he promised. A person who runs a clean campaign... he comes out with a new ad every day and they run it on all the programs and analyze it so he has about 24 hours to clean up

[vipersdad]

I know from having worked in and around advertising that nothing goes into an ad like this by accident. What messages and meta-messages they are trying to convey are certainly open to interpretation. The chilling inference you are drawing is certainly one reasonable reaction to this ad.

While I pray that the people who put this piece together are above that, I know all too well that this industry is full of the same types of people who were ENRON traders and Arms Dealers....so for those without the hinderance of a soul or conscience, it is possible that the message you are seeing between the lines of this ad may well have been intended.

If that's true, that's the definition of evil.