This two-minute-long Obama ad is set to air nationally starting today.
This ad, unlike his previous rapid response hitting McCain, has been tested. The ad itself has not been tested, but the message has. And I'm willing to bet the message converts.
It converts because it follows the well worn path of every--and I mean every--story, fable, folk tale, movie and novel.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung and his disciple, Joseph Campbell, analyzed ancient and modern stories and found that every story has the same elements.
Campbell called it the path of the hero or the monomyth .
Obama is skipping a couple of steps on that path, but he is following the basic arc. More than anything else, he is addressing a basic human need--the scapegoat, the villain, the enemy.
He sets up the natural environment and conflict, "Wall Street's been rocked as banks closed and markets tumbled."
Then establishes the innocent victim/sub-hero and villain in one sentence, "This isn't just a string of bad luck. The truth is that while you've been living up to your responsibilities Washington has not."
The call to adventure with a bit of the elixer comes next, "Here's what I believe we need to do."
And another call to adventure, with a foreshadowing of the cave, "Doing these things won't be easy. But we're Americans. We've met tough challenges before. And we can again." The voters are also the hero along with Obama.
Then, he, like all heroes, returns with the elixer, "bitter, partisan fights and outworn ideas of the left and the right won't solve the problems we face today. But a new spirit of unity and shared responsibility will."
I seriously doubt the writers of this ad worked through the stages to craft the ad. Talented writers do it naturally. I, being a workman, have to consciously build it piece by piece. Which means I can recognize it when I see it.
This ad speaks to humans in the way our brains are hard wired to understand things.
Humans need someone to blame. Humans refuse to see randomness, we refuse to see a string of complex events for what it is.
Humans will rarely blame themselves or accept the ill winds of fortune. I'm suprised they didn't spend another sentence defining the villain.
The campaign that establishes the narrative first on the economic issue will take control of the OODA loop.
Obama is moving in that direction with an expensive ad buy. Two minute blocks of time are very expensive. He rolled the dice on an untested ad hitting McCain on the economy earlier this week and is doubling his bet with a big buy.
McCain will now have to see this bet and raise it. He will have to use the same path but establish a different villain--Obama and Biden's cash connections to Fannie/Freddie and Wall Street and other lenders.
McCain will have to show that he has been the hero all along, and make a similar call to adventure with the voters. He can claim that 'Drill Baby Drill' has already brought down gas prices. He has already delivered some results and now it is time to complete the path by taking on and vanquishing the villain.
Does this all sound bizzarre? I know it does.
But think for a moment--doesn't every movie, TV show, novel and play follow the basic arc and flow? The successful ones do.
Why would a political campaign and campaign advertising be any different? After all, the recipient of every story is a human.
