Media Analysts Split on Effectiveness of Obama Infomercial

Fox News ^ | October 30, 2008

[Zakeet]

Barack Obama's half-hour, multimillion-dollar television infomercial was a slick production but media analysts are split on whether the target audience bought what he was selling.

Obama took the unusual step of making his final pitch to be president Wednesday night with a 30-minute ad featuring Americans struggling to stay afloat and explaining how an Obama presidency would help them.

The program aired on seven major cable and broadcast networks, cost more than $3 million and preceded the final game of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays.

The infomercial reached 21.7 percent of households, according to Nielsen ratings. That compares to 38.3 percent of households who watched Obama's final debate against John McCain. In 1996, Ross Perot offered his own paid simulcast as an independent presidential candidate and earned a 16.8 rating.

Howard Kurtz, media writer for The Washington Post, said parts of Obama's ad were effective while others were just plain over-the-top.

"The highly produced segments on the struggle of ordinary Americans who live in swing states was very nicely done," Kurtz told FOXNews.com.

"The faux Oval Office seemed a tad presumptuous to me ... and closing with the big rally kind of defeated the purpose of the previous 27 minutes which was to bring Obama down from the clouds and show him interacting with normal people. And here he was finishing with rhetorical flourishes on changing the world," he said.

[Zakeet]

Bottom line:

• Even the ultra-libs from the WaPoo thought Obooma went over the top.

• About the only media guru who liked Barry's burps was the clown who advised Perot to do his PowerPoint presentation.

• About the same number of persons who watched the Perot blow watched Barry. This was about half of the number who watched the last presidential debate (which itself was a record low for this campaign).

• The gala presentation probably won't sway many undecided voters.

• The value of the infomercial in small compared to the value of Barry's media puff.

Or in other words, don't worry.

[AmericaUnited]

The Empty Suit was just so full of himself and it was evident as anything. Blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[texmexis best]

If the analysts are split, the infomercial is a major failure.

[Argus]

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[weegee]

with a 30-minute ad featuring Americans struggling to stay afloat and explaining how an Obama presidency would help them.

Waiting for each of them to be as exposed as Joe The Plumber was with tax audits, criminal background checks, etc.

[weegee]

They “like” Obama, they just don’t actually want to hear what he has to say. They might lose their faith in him if they did.

[bboop]

If Zero really cares about the world, why is he spending all these gazillion bucks on self-aggrandizement? Hasn’t he thought what someone like Mother Theresa could have done with that money? What if he GAVE everyone in the US that doesn’t pay taxes $1000 of that money? What if he actually DID something with his life, his money.

But NO, he spends it on skin-lighteners and hair-grayers and fancy suits and lobster snacks and styrofoam faux-columns.

What a disgusting pretense of a man. A real zero.

[bvw]

Perot's infomercial WAS effective. Perot is a natural born salesmen of that extended-presentation type of school. Like the Sham-Wow guy does make the sale! Even the best salesman only pulls a percentage of the audience. Yet, numbers count -- it worked for Sham-Wow and it worked for Perot. They closed on that small, but significant, share they wanted. Perot wanted Herbert Walker defeated -- and he got that.

But Obama's presentation was not effective. Obama is NOT a natural in that format. There was no stadium full of rock-concert-type fans cheering wildly. Obama lost significant share of a pre-sold group, of that I am fairly certain.

Time shall tell.

[lonevoice]

Bill Thompson, a pioneer in direct response marketing... added that Obama was preaching to the choir.

"I'm not convinced he reached undecided voters," he said, adding that he believes a majority of them won't vote for a black candidate.

"He needed to make himself look totally white," he said

Holy geeze. This guy gets paid for this kind of "expertise"? Unreal.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

He should have had Sarah Palin in the infomercial. Then people would have watched it.

Notice that they didn’t compare the ratings to the VP debate...

[DGHoodini]

Yep! They and Crap Matthews, and Queeg OlberButtMunch, all hyped Obamas’ “World Tour’, his handshaking with world leaders, that made4 him Presidential..They were enraptured by the crowds that stayed to listen to Obama in Berlin, after the two act rock concert. They wee so “in awe” of his “Race speech”, They declared his ObamaPalooza Convention complete with columns as the “second coming”...Now this 30 minute infomercial, well it was just the most ingenious thing any politician has ever done!!! Funny that nobody else thought all that much of it.

Obamas twin leg humpers and the rest that are like them in the media, aren’t doing much more than showing that they will do and say *anything* to get their new Stalin elected.

They are the biggest unfunny jokes on TV.

[DoughtyOne]

The infomercial reached 21.7 percent of households... (that had their televisions on).

[iopscusa]

Did not watch, I find BO so repulsive that if his ads appear on tv or radio it invokes a gag reflex and immediately turning off said appliance!
IMO the guy’s big special is a further turnoff to most voters.

[calex59]

If Zero really cares about the world, why is he spending all these gazillion bucks on self-aggrandizement?

You have an excellent point.

My question for Bozo, if I ever had the chance to ask, would be "If you are for spreading the wealth, then why do you have millions of dollars? Why haven't you given it away to these people you say need a helping hand, the ones coming up behind you as you told Joe the Plumber? Where is the example you should be setting, Bozo? You give your money away first and then if it works out we will think about giving ours away!"

I don't know why Palin or McCain do not ask this question of Bozo, theoretically of course, at their rallies. It would be a destroyer for him.

[Teacher317]

If I were an Obama adivsor (and hadn't killed myself), I would've told him to skip the infomercial, for several reasons:

1. At the end of October, most swing voters are absolutely tired of seeing even 30-seconds of politicians talking. a 2-minutes ad would be offensive. 30 minutes is ghastly.
2. Timing it to butt up against the World Series will offend sports nuts. They don't want to hear about taxes and diplomacy in the run-up to the final game of the Autumn Classic. They want sports-related stats, interviews, montages, predictions, and season reviews.
3. Even the President rarely speaks for more than 5-10 minutes on primetime tv, other than for the State of the Union and other scheduled annual events. Going for 30 shows a colassal ego, especially for a man who has written nothing in his life other than two books about himself.
4. 30 minutes of uninterrupted talk from one person will feel simply like a college freshman lecture class. Couch potato American swing voters are NOT going to enjoy a lecture on tv.
5. A 30-minute spot, even with a sweetheart deal from the network, is expensive. That money could've been better applied elsewhere, and would've driven away fewer voters... heck it might've even attracted some of the undecideds!! What a novel idea for fundraising cash!

[DoughtyOne]

On another thread a person made the observation that he thinks Obama has jumped the shark. I don’t know if I would go that far, but I do think we have reached the point of election fatigue. That could cause a similar reaction to Obama’s offering. Enough already.