Monday, December 04, 2006
The Bear
I still think this is one of the best political ads of the last thirty years:
What do you suppose the reaction would be if a national security candidate ran an analogous ad in 2008? ...
"There's a camel in the desert. For some people, the camel is easy to see. Some people don't see it at all...."
So a camel isn't that scary. Fair enough. How about: "There's a raving lunatic in the desert. For some people, the raving lunatic is easy to see. Some people don't see him at all..."
8 Comments:
By 
William, at
Mon Dec 04, 06:56:00 PM:
Really funny... but terribly simplified.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Dec 04, 07:06:00 PM:
"There's a raving lunatic in the desert"
Is the raving lunatic in the desert an Arab, an Israeli, an Iranian, or an American?
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon Dec 04, 08:35:00 PM:
Pashtu. It's a trick question.
By 
, at
Mon Dec 04, 08:38:00 PM:
Is the raving lunatic in the desert an Arab, an Israeli, an Iranian, or an American?
Its whoever you always offer apologies for.
By Sissy Willis, at
Mon Dec 04, 09:27:00 PM:
GW's "weakness attracts those who are waiting to America harm" ad had it in spades:
Ah-oooo-oooo!
By Jimmy K., at
Mon Dec 04, 10:49:00 PM:
think I've go it. Go to this page and check out the Desert Cobra. That should do the trick.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.capesnakes.org.za/gallery.content/album02/aay.sized.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.capesnakes.org.za/index.php%3Fset_albumName%3Dalbum02%26id%3Daay%26option%3Dcom_gallery%26Itemid%3D3%26include%3Dview_photo.php&h=414&w=640&sz=41&hl=en&sig2=9Y8FyUR7zhODeb346NE6Ug&start=26&tbnid=XE9lSkva9QWE2M:&tbnh=89&tbnw=137&ei=8ut0RZCeM6ryaP6nrYYD&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddesert%2Bcobra%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
By John B. Chilton, at
Tue Dec 05, 01:16:00 PM:
Obviously you've never encountered a camel. They spit, belch, and bite.
I do wonder about the wisdom of running the ad with anything that would smack of racism. The bear analogy to USSR never struck me that way and it still doesn't. But using camels or cobras as analogy to Islamic terrorists would. Have times changed? Or is it that it is difficult to control what the analogy would be taken to be. Many, for example, might to take it to mean all Muslims or all Arabs and be offended. That would not be an effective ad.
Why not just run the ad with a bear and overvoice with "there's a new bear in the woods and it's name is terrorism...."
By , at
Tue Dec 05, 02:30:00 PM:
Hmmm...it seems that the message of Reagan's ad could just as easily be applied to the thread on climate change below.
