WASHINGTON (LPH) — At first glance, Bush’s
television commercial on
prescription drugs looks like one of his
standard attack advertisements. The
announcer starts by praising George W.
Bush's proposal for dealing with
prescription drugs, and criticizes the
plan being offered by Vice President
Al Gore. It has all the charm of a wino
with Tourette’s Syndrome and is, as
usual, more slanted than Pythagorus’s erection.
Fragments of the phrase "bureaucrats decide"
— deriding Mr. Gore's
proposal — dance around the screen in one
section of the ad. Then, if the
viewer watches very closely, something
else happens. The word "RATS," a
fragment of the word "bureaucrats”, pops
up in one frame. And though the
image lasts only one-thirtieth of a second,
it is in huge white capital letters,
five times the size of any other word on
the commercial. The advertisement
then declares, "The Gore prescription plan:
bureaucrats decide."
But as one might be expect in a tightly
contested presidential race, the Democrats
have given the 30-second advertisement
more than a quick glance.
After being alerted by an eagle-eyed member
of the Democrat “Smirk-Watch ”
committee in Seattle, aides to Mr. Gore
examined the advertisement frame by
frame, spotted the suspicious word and
gave a copy of a slowed-down version
to The New York Times.
Alex Castellanos, who produced the commercial
for the Republican National
Committee, insisted that the use of the
word was "purely accidental," saying,
“It was probably the same guy who made
those phone calls saying that McCain
was a liar. Governor Bush’s campaign has
been plagued by rogue campaign
workers who sometimes take things a bit
too far.”
Asked when he had first noticed the word
in the commercial, Mr. Castellanos said,
"Hey, I never even SAW the darned thing.
I’m paid to make the ads, not watch them.”
Several Republican and Democratic advertising
consultants who were told of the
commercial, as well as many independent
academics, said they were startled that
such a word would appear and said it appeared
to be a subliminal attempt to
discredit Mr. Gore. But Mr. Bush said today
that the suggestion that the ad was
meant to be subliminal was "bizarre and
weird."
"I am convinced this is not intentional,"
Mr. Bush told reporters in Orlando, Fla.,
where he is campaigning. "You don't need
to play, you know, cute politics.
Someone obviously misunderstood my directions
or something. I said to flash the
word “STAR” in there over Gore’s picture..
..and perhaps one of the crew was
feeling a little dyslexic or something.
I, myself, have even struggled with bouts of
dyslexia over the years.. ..really.. ..Swear
to Dog."
"Besides, one frame out of 900 hardly in
my judgment makes a conspiracy,"
Mr. Bush continued. " I don't think we
need to be subliminal about prescription drugs.
It’s an important issue and I think we
should be very PRO-liminal about the whole thing."
Mr. Bush's chief media consultant, Mark
McKinnon, said he had not noticed the word
"rats" when he reviewed the advertisement
before it was broadcast.
“I mean, you can’t even see it unless you
happen to be looking at the TV
screen at just the right moment.”
After being told of the word, Mr. McKinnon
said the commercial should be
corrected because it "certainly might give
reporters or anybody else who
looked at it" a reason to stir up attention.
"However, `Rats' is not a message," McKinnon
said. " `Bad Plan' or `Seniors
Lose' might be. But `rats?' We're just
not that clever. I just watched it
five times in a row. Hard as I looked,
couldn't see `rats.' Well, not for
more than a fraction of a second, anyway.”
Almost every advertising professional interviewed
said that, given the
technology by which commercials are assembled
frame by frame, it was
virtually impossible for a producer not
to know the word was there.
Ronald C. Goodstein, a marketing professor
at Georgetown University's
business school who has studied subliminal
advertising, said the word "rats"
could have the effect of "making some people
feel more negative toward
Gore," although he said that Gore’s approval
rating among snakes “could
probably see a small rise.”
One Republican consultant who defended Mr.
Castellanos was Sal Russo. "I'm
not as conspiracy minded as everyone else
is," he said. "I can't imagine
that that's deliberate. I've got to think
it's inadvertent.. ..a mistake –
just like Governor Bush said. Dyslexia
may be something YOU wish to make
light of, but I’d rather not. Not unless
Mr. Castellanos tells me to, anyway."
Bush concluded, “This was just an honest
mistake on somebody’s part. I
promise the American people that, from
now on, any problems like this that
arise in the future will also not be my
fault. It a painful experience to be
exposed.. ..I mean, persecuted.. ..as a
back-stabbing liar and a
potty-mouth. My comment last week to Dick
Chaney was misunderstood too. Few
know that Dick and I both speak Swahili
and when I called Clymer a ‘Rojam
Elohssa’.. ..well, I guess my dyslexia
was acting up without my knowing it
and it came out as ‘Major Asshole’. Everyone
who speaks Swahili knows that
‘Rojam Elohssa’ means ‘he’s a good kid’..
..So, see?... ..I really like the
dick.. ..I mean - KID. Ahhhgh! Damn this
ugly disease!”
I’m just sayin’…
Lo
Phat Ham – Rogue Reporter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lo Phat!
We missed you.