Thursday, July 31, 2008

John McCain's Celeb advertisement on Obama

In a recent lecture to students, I was teaching them about techniques in public relations. One of the techniques used is 'defining an opponent'. This was used by Bush to define Kerry as 'a flipflopper'. It was also used by L K Advani recently to describe Manmohan Singh as 'the weakest PM ever'. This is exactly what John McCain has done with the latest ad put forth by his campaign.

In this ad, McCain compares Obama's popularity and 'celeb' status to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton! It is certainly a new low in politics but it should be seen as a technique in PR and how it can be used/misused.

Students should find something to learn from it and they should realize the tremendous power that language and discourse exerts in our lives.

Here is the link: The 'celeb' ad on Obama.

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This blog is about a personal history but also about a professional life. It is about an English professor but also about a professional translator. It is in fact about a life well-lived and how to live a life pretty well.

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