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| Unaired Democratic ad blames Bush for 9/11; does poorly in focus group test |
| 2004-04-19 |
| By Ron Brownstein, Los Angeles Times (LRR). Mentioned in John Leo’s weekly column for those of you who don’t want to go through the LAT’s registration. Snipped from a larger article on the 9/11 commission: . . . so far, most Americans recoil from efforts to blame Bush for the attacks. One leading Democratic interest group recently asked a focus group in Florida to respond to a potential television ad accusing Bush of negligence in failing to stop the attacks. The result was volcanic — against the ad. "They were so angry I thought they were going to turn the tables over," said a Democratic operative who watched the session. "It was a very polarizing ad, and it pushed people who were on the fence decidedly away from us." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #8 "It was a very polarizing ad, and it pushed people who were on the fence decidedly away from us." "They also decided to shelve the planned ad blaming President Bush for Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and American Idol." |
| Posted by: ColoradoConservative 2004-04-19 6:38:59 PM |
| #7 Damn, they're focus-group testing their ads first. Too bad - I would have loved to see the reaction if this one had aired. It amazes me they would even talk about it. Whatever happened to deny, spin, etc.? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-04-19 4:47:04 PM |
| #6 Now if the focus group had been thinking, they would have stood up and applauded the ad... and waited for the fallout when they actually aired the thing. %) |
| Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar 2004-04-19 4:39:21 PM |
| #5 Ideally, your focus group would include a broad range of opinion, so you give the ad a thorough test. The perfect political ad would (1) enthuse (or at least not annoy) the people in your camp, (2) persuade the undecideds, and (3) sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt (or at least inspire grudging respect) among the opposition. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-04-19 3:43:28 PM |
| #4 I doubt the focus group was made up of dedicated Democrat voters; likely it was "undecided voters", since those are the ones ads are intended to target. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-04-19 2:46:25 PM |
| #3 The last couple of years have convinced me that the Democratic Party leadership views the rank and file as a collection of semi-retarded, ignorant, closed-minded bigots with low intelligence, very short attention spans, and a psychopathic hatred of Republicans. While that description fits a few, most Democrats are just decent people who want their leaders to give them straight talk, competent governance and a fair shake. And above all, they don't want their leaders to bullshit them. It's no surprise this ad got the response it did. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-04-19 12:31:15 PM |
| #2 Also, the folks who did the ad now realize Howard Dean's attampt at script-writing was a dismal failure. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-19 12:07:31 PM |
| #1 "They were so angry I thought they were going to turn the tables over," said a Democratic operative who watched the session. "It was a very polarizing ad, and it pushed people who were on the fence decidedly away from us." The focus group organizers then concluded that water is wet and that the Pope is Catholic. (Can't wait for the November landslide.) |
| Posted by: Unmutual 2004-04-19 12:04:18 PM |