This advertisement is one of the easier to identify as propoganda. It is a campaign ad, for one thing, although it is not officially endorsed by a candidate.
The spot adheres to the traditional medium of modern propoganda in being a television commercial. Nancy Snow points out in her "10 Things Everyone Should Know About Propoganda" that the concentration of mass media is essential to the production of propoganda. Youtube obviously throws this idea into complication: Several of you have pointed out videos already that were neither originated nor "propogated" by any form of traditional mass media. But I suppose this is another argument.
At issue in this commercial is Obama's support of the Planned Parenthood organization. The ad chooses to highlight their work with sexually abused children while denegrating the McCain campaign's apparent (and deliberate) misunderstanding. (A newspaper headline flashes on screen: "Obama calls for comprehensive sex education.") And then the commercial accuses the McCain campaign of dishonesty.
The complexities of the issue, in other words, are not followed through. We never learn exactly what bill Obama supported (or what his relationship to Planned Parenthood is in general.) We also get no mention of the "white elephant" in the room here, namely abortion. The commercial instead presents "different kinds of truth" as Nancy Snow has it: "half-truths, limited truths, out of context truths." As viewers, we certainly don't doubt that Obama supports activities to prevent sexual abuse, but we get the feeling there is more to the story.
It would be interesting to examine whether this commercial was more widely viewed on YouTube or on television (one has to assume the latter) but regardless, 78,000 views is fairly significant. And if the disabled comments are any indication, there might have been some fairly ugly "debate" going on. The viral appeal of the video certainly has to do with the controversial topic of abortion. Once that gets thrown into the political ring, people find they have a lot to say.
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