The Monty Python video he posted was making fun of Catholics. I was just joking though, I wasn't offended. My wife's the youngest of 14. We already have 2 and have no plans to use contraception. We'll end up like the folks in that video.
Racist in that the fetus is African American...and they say that it will grow up in a broken home, abandoned by his father, raised by a mother that's struggling. That story is played out.
So apparently both the NFL and NBC denied the ad. NBC denied it to run during the game, but they were willing to let it run pregame. The NFL said, nope nada no way to it being played in the pregame.
But the point of the original ad wasn't what you're saying here. It was to basically say "look at this great life that would have been prevented by an abortion". It's entire premise is using great person to show why abortion is bad. Take the current ad and insert Hitler instead and it's in no way effective as an anti-abortion ad. If you had the same ad but showed Hitler and his actions at the end, it would serve as an (albeit strange and awkward) "look what could have been prevented" pro-choice ad.
The NFL doesn't even allow the racy version of the GoDaddy ad. There's no way in hell they were ever going to allow this. The whole idea of Superbowl ads is to be non-controversial.
That's certainly one way to interpret the ad, and I grant you throwing Hitler in there would not have been as effective. I interpret it differently though, obviously not every kid will be Obama, but hardships shouldn't be the main reason to have an abortion. You very well could have the next Obama.
In this case, it would be misleading, I believe. While his father would abandon him and he would be raised by a single mother, that wasn't at all the case when he was in the womb. He was born into a normal, happy 2-parent married family, no? It doesn't seem like he was the classic case of a demographic that would be a likely abortion candidate.
Those words used to described the fetus have been terms used to describe the African American culture for decades upon decades. Watch movies, listen to songs, etc... You see that theme played out over and over and over. Its sad and pathetic that an advertisement would take that route.
I absolutely agree there - but the message about every kid having "potential" only works if you end the ad with a great person of some sort in it. That's key to making the message powerful. Regardless, I do think it's a creative and fairly effective ad, measured on the scale of abortion ads (which I don't think are terribly effective in general).
Except the childhood hardships that are alluded to in the ad didn't exist for his mom when she was expecting. He wasn't in utero 'under similar circumstance that many abortions happen.' He was two when his father left. When he was in utero his parents were married and his father was attending college on scholarship. That some of you got the impression that the 'played out' stereotypes applied to Obama demonstraits that the ad might just be a little disengenuous. (IMO). I think if you're going to use someone as a poster-child for your campaign, that person should probably agree with your position. The ad was all about Obama -- in the context of pro-choice being misguided. Yet Obama himself is pro-choice, and is endorsed by pro-choice groups. I tried to think of a similar example -- but they got kind of silly. This is why I'm not in marketing! (best I could do was an ad supporting the invasion of Iraq filled with pictures and narrative of Obama (and only Obama) which opined about the freedom and opportunity the American dream might bring to everyday iraqi's). So..regardless of how out of touch my example is....I think it's an issue that many feel very strongly about -- so maybe pick someone from your own side. Ohh...and I liked the PETA ad better.
CNN - Obama: Pro-choice, not pro-abortion <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hym1BW7Ep2A&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hym1BW7Ep2A&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I agree that it’s true for a lot of pro-choice people. From my standpoint I agree with pretty well everything Obama said, except I would probably favour more laws to address the situations where people do to abuse it. It becomes a very difficult judgement call when you grapple with how to handle the grey area.
Maybe someone has killed the the anti-christ? Or the next karl malone? Or maybe maybe we maybe a maybe? don't you maybe? i maybe. maybe!
