Pawlenty / Bay 2012!

No one is saying you can't love your country. What they're saying is that "I love my country" is not a salient fact to what qualifies someone to be President of the United States.

Over the top patriotic sentiment is what those who wish to manipulate the citizenry use when they have no viable ideas to improve the country they claim to love. This ad is nothing but fluff to make Pawlenty look like something not resembling a bag of douche.

Wow, melodramatic. i'll say its a good commercial, even if I'm certainly not a huge fan of Pawlenty (although there are a lot worse out there). I also like the shot of the hockey game there, yep, Pawlenty isn't Minnesotan at all

What's it selling?

Organic fertilizer.

Well, Pawlenty himself, of course. And it does it in that typical Michael Bay style of flash, bang and little substance. But it IS effective.

Effective?

Ask yourself this. If you took Pawlenty out of it and put any other mainstream American politician in it, would it be any more or less effective?

Why or why not?

CE: Sucking the fun out of dumb-shit mockery for 4 years running.

Are there tits in it, or just the one boob?

No, there are two boobs.
Pawlenty and Bay.

If I took you out of this post and put any other regular CE poster in it, would ... would ... ah, never mind.

I get what you're saying about finding it uplifting to hear someone come out and come out loudly with the message of "I love my country." Most (not all) of us here have never had our patriotism tested the way you have in multiple war zones. Our experiences tend to be less visceral and more removed and our friends sleep safely in their beds at night. I can see how hearing these few words spoken, even from an unlikely source, would have value to you. We take so little time to express our support of you who go where we send you. Indifference seems to abound, except when discussing the wars we're waging in monetary terms rather than human or philosophical ones. Sadly loud, positive messages are in short supply.

That said, for many here the problem is that when it comes to Pawlenty there's a lot to disagree with about his politics or track record. Clearly you're not in support of his politics either, but instead, differ with others about how the ad plays. Without even getting into politics, I see an ad like this and think, “Who does this guy think he is? Ben Affleck?” It doesn't work for me. Politicians already have entire teams helping them to present the winning image and we all know that. Maybe it is naïve to think that enlisting the services of a big time Hollywood director is one step too far, but to me it is just that. It's slick though, a fact which makes me want to buy his book even less. I don’t like the action movie trailer feel of it.

I thought that video looked familiar...

You're missing my point. At no point did I say that I liked the ad, or that I'm a fan of Pawlenty (I am not). What I am saying is that if the ad's purpose was to get Pawlenty's name out there and associate him, in people's mind's with a vague sense of patriotism ... then, yes, the commercial was effective.
Did it illistrate any of Pawlenty's political ideals or goals? No. Did it have any real substance? None at all. Did it appeal to the inner 11-year-old-boy in everyone who wants to yell "America, FUCK YAH" and then see Chuck Norris kick the shit out of a terrorist? Without a doubt. Which was, I think, the point of it in the first place. (Hence, you know, Michael Bay) Which is why I'll stand by my description of the commercial was 'effective."

There's nothing inherently douchtastic about love of country, but the artificial glamorization of one's passion is. Once it starts, it becomes like an arms race or a pissing contest, who loves their country more, does one's passion invalidate another's? Such displays of patriotism are best left to celebrations like the 4th of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc. that way they have a shared contextual meaning, otherwise the amplification of such "passions" threaten to push boundaries Nationalism into the realm of extremism and cheapen the otherwise shared experience for love of country.

One thing you've pointed out is the "motivating" factor of this political puff piece. If there is a core message that it is trying to deliver, what is it? That America is great but that it wasn't easy to achieve such greatness? That the American people are great because they've had to work hard to overcome adversity to achieve such greatness? Or that Pawlenty is a great American because he says America and it's people are great, but that we are facing even more adversity and he's the man to help make it all go away? Really? How do we know he's the right person for the job if they don't even clearly describe what the details of that job entail (yes, we all know, he's aiming for the presidency, but what of the job itself...? What are the problems to be addressed? What policies would he pursue to overcome such problems?

Obviously, this is the most ambiguous aspect of the Michael Bay piece, it doesn't even address or define a single problems, but that isn't because such issues haven't been considered. Rather, they let the viewer project their own problems, or adversity, into the message, therefore their concerns become the nations concerns... And of course, Tim Pawlenty is the man to address your concerns and make your problems magically disappear...

This type of political marketing is no different then an advertisement for diamonds, chewing gum or deodorant, all imply that you will be able to your fulfill emotional and social needs if you buy their products, yet such material objects have no real bearing on such fulfillment. Never the less, we allow them (the ads) to dictate such a false belief, no different than this type of political ad.

Sure it's a wonderful message, but there is also a truth that Americans haven't always been so great, some of that adversity we've had to overcome in order to become so great has also come from ourselves. We should always be weary of any politician who drapes himself in the cloak of patriotism and expects us simply to be fawned by such messages. We need to be openly critical of them as well of ourselves if we are to be honest with ourselves, truly, it is such self-scrutiny that has allowed us to become so great.

+1

I'm pretty sure we could just green screen YOU in there and it would be just as effective. In fact, I bet you could be MORE effective!

But it would be MOST effective if _I- was put into it