Ezra Klein: The Hillary-Mac Ads I Want To See

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March 20, 2007

The Hillary-Mac Ads I Want To See

I have some longer comments on the spot over at Tapped, but I have to admit to being basically unimpressed with the ad. Not the execution of it, which is certainly slick, but the argument. It's overwrought! What you really want to do is get Hillary and Obama into the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" spots. For instance, this ad, with Hillary playing Hodgeman's character and babbling at Obama about spreadsheets, would actually be better and more apt when applied to the two candidates than it is for the two computers.

Update: Or this one! Hillary's campaign is totally made for balancing checkbooks, while Obama's is there to stimulate imaginations.

March 20, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

I don't know about that - everybody I see who comments on the Mac ads says that they wind up liking the PC more.

Posted by: Devin McCullen | Mar 20, 2007 9:14:12 AM

I don't agree. I thought the ad clever. Especially when you concider it being done by a supporter and not by a professional ad place.
I saw it about 2 weeks ago and laughed. The Hillary character is so her!

Posted by: vwcat | Mar 20, 2007 9:18:43 AM

Hillary's campaign is totally made for balancing checkbooks, while Obama's is there to stimulate imaginations.

So which campaign will actually end the war, try to set a sane, decent, moral foreign policy for the United States, roll back near-dictatorial power grabs on the part of the executive branch, and fix the health care system? Please don't tell me Linux.

Posted by: Christmas | Mar 20, 2007 9:32:18 AM

"The Hillary character is so her!"

Yeah! A woman whose health care plan was defeated in '94; a woman whose constant criticism is heard throughout the media, from FOX News to Tim Russert; and a woman whose "shrill" linguistic skill is mocked regularly by those who despise her. Basically, someone who is roundly despised and criticized.

Sounds like a monolithic, totalitarian government, "1984"-style to me! That's Big Brother to a tee, Vwcat!

Oh, wait, if you've read Orwell at all, you know that is quite obviously not the case.

Posted by: Media Glutton | Mar 20, 2007 9:35:28 AM

I've been kind of amazed at the amount of attention this ad has received. I mean, there are a gaggle of negative home-grown campaign ads all over Youtube about any given candidate but this one somehow signals the end times. Objectively, the level of attention it's garnering may actually be the best indicator of its effectiveness. I thought it was an interesting and creative co-opt of the old Mac branding but it could have been effective against any establishment candidate. It would fit in with McCain's web page design perfectly.

Posted by: Gwen | Mar 20, 2007 9:56:04 AM

The British version of the Mac vs. PC ad is much funnier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_clY2-Y_eFg&NR

Posted by: Dan Miller | Mar 20, 2007 10:03:02 AM

"It's the bureaucratic competence, stupid".

"Shrillness in the defense of mumble mumble is no vice".

CNN's Beck set the frame: She's the bitch-wife that ruins the TV sports-watching.

Let's face it, a Democratic primary campaign without a pinata for the media to bash wouldn't be fun or cable-news-channel-eyeballs attracting. Hillary was born to be a pinata for the media and GOP. Edwards (the cutie) or Obama (His middle name is Hussein) are stand-ins waiting in the wings, studying for the role if GOP-flu strikes Hillary down.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Mar 20, 2007 11:39:00 AM

get Hillary and Obama into the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" spots

Does this mean Hillary will command 85% of the voting market?

Posted by: Sanpete | Mar 20, 2007 12:58:43 PM

Does this mean Hillary will command 85% of the voting market?

Yes. And if the analogy to the PC-Mac commercial were apt, she'd deserve to. Which of those guys would you rather have a beer with?

Hey, despite the plea from Christmas above, one possible upside of electing Senator Clinton would thus be the ability to scrub her expensive, corporate, error-riddled "OS" and install an open source OS instead, which would be a boon for democratic government. (Yes, I'm ignoring Yellow Dog Linux, the ability to multiboot via Boot Camp, etc., etc. And no, OS X doesn't count just because Apple has played a bunch of BSD developers for suckers.)

God, what a sucky analogy. Back to playing an OpenVMS port of Doom.

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