I was just taking a look at the new John McCain campaign ad and a review of it by Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air. The ad is called, simply enough, “Love.” Before I prejudice your opinion, click on the play button below and see what you think.
This ad is drawing a clear contrast between two different types of “love” in the sixties. Ed chooses to describe it as a contrast of “philos vs. eros”. I see the contrast being drawn, but the effect looks rather dubious. Drawing a comparison between the free love generation and the love of country on display in the war footage would doubtless sell well to the greatest generation, but they are regrettably in short supply these days. The “hippies” on display in the spot are, rather, from the following age, the baby boomers. I think the following inadvertently says it all.
McCain’s ad draws battle lines between philos and eros and takes one last shot at a decade that produced the most self-referential and self-absorbed generation of Americans ever seen — the Baby Boomers.
I agree that this is the contrast being shown. My question, though, is in who is supposed to be attracted or offended by this advertisement. If I’m running the McCain campaign, I’m not sure if the first group I would like to offend would be the boomers, who doubtless comprise the largest slice of the voters this season. It’s also worth remembering that there is a very unpopular war going on right now, just as there was during the era portrayed in this ad. Sending a message of, “I was one of the brave ones over there fighting while you stayed here to weave flowers in your hair and have sex in the park” might not be the best tone to set.
It may just be me, but I don’t believe this effort was thought through very clearly.