Obama Infomercial: A Flop With Critics, Ratings »
Posted By JaimieM 1 year, 1 month ago in NewsA review of the aftermath of the Obama half-hour commercial on Tuesday. It flopped:
When one program dominates its time slot by simulcasting on five different networks, the producers obviously intend on making it must-see TV. Barack Obama’ s infomercial fell far short.
Despite its multiple platforms, it could only garner 21.7% of the households in the US. The debates drew far more:
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JaimieM1 year, 1 month ago
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Two leading infomercial stars agree: Barack Obama’s half-hour self-promotion last night was a flop.
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“I don’t see enough smiling. Doom and gloom totally,” said Anthony Sullivan, one of the biggest names in infomercial history.
“I feel depressed right now,” added Sullivan, an Englishman famous for his infomercials touting the Swivel Sweeper and Smart Chopper.-
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JaimieM1 year, 1 month ago
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The Ross Perot comparison is interesting. Perot made his famously policy-driven case, complete with pie charts, to 16.8% of the nation. On Election Day, he won 8.6% of the popular vote. Obama will win more than 22% of the popular vote, but one can take a lesson from this: the entire nation is not enthralled with The One.
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As I predicted before the Obamamercial, only the true believers bothered to watch it. -
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amervtrn1 year, 1 month ago
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True cost of freedom is something those who never served seldom understand.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8 Dear Mr.Obama
Keep America Free
McCain-Palin 08 -
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amervtrn1 year, 1 month ago
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If you really want to hear what should be an infomecial , refer them to http://politics-speeches.blogspot.com/2008/11/schw... Arnold Schwartzenegger's speech in Ohio, 31 Oct 2008.
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America is not for sale
Keep America Free
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CRYMTYPHON1 year, 1 month ago
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"two leading informercial stars agree"
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okaaay, that is rather a low panel of experts;
about 1 step above having an actor in a white doctors coat
give us a serious opinion about healthcare.
But it is something. Just not much.
From electoral-vote.com:
The total audience on all networks was 33 million.
Obama was shown talking to wildly cheering crowds and individuals, constantly emphasizing how he will help the middle class...Post columnist Tom Shales compared Obama to Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, only potentially with a happier ending ..It is hard to imagine anyone watching it and thinking "this guy is a newbie not ready for prime time."
Was it depressing? A flop?
Early voting for Obama is way past the numbers for McCain.
But, judge yourself:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/obamas-pr... -
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Ah my! This thread is the desperate talking to the desperate trying to convince themselves with silly propaganda that they haven't lost!
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Obama ad boosts network ratings
If Barack Obama fails to win the election, perhaps the networks should hire him to entertain viewers on Wednesday nights....
Obama improved NBC's time period average this season by 40% and CBS' by 19%...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_displa... -
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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The right wing efforts at smears are getting weaker and weaker and more and more desperate.
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Goldwater, Eisenhower, Buckley and Powell for Obama
While Obama closes his campaign with a call for unity, McCain closes his campaign with more attacks against Obama. But the central truth of 2008 is this: If Obama is a pal of terrorists or a socialist, why is he supported by leading members of the most famous families in Republican history, such as Goldwater, Eisenhower, Buckley and Powell?
Something profound is happening in 2008. There is a post-partisan appeal to Obama: his desire to end partisan acrimony; his calm and deliberative temperament that is widely seen as presidential and has great appeal to independents and some reasoned conservatives.
Obama follows President Bush, who has violated core conservative values and created a wave of dissent from principled conservatives. McCain's Rove-like attacks on Obama do not ring true.
Susan Eisenhower, C.C. Goldwater, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Chris Buckley do not have a history of supporting Democrats. It is unprecedented and remarkable that a Democratic nominee has this many supporters named Eisenhower, Goldwater, Nixon and Buckley. They are not alone.
Conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish; pro-life legal scholar Douglas Kmiec; former Republican Sens. Mac Mathias (Md.) and Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld; and former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach are among others who have broken with their histories of supporting Republicans and endorsed Obama.
Nationally respected conservatives such as Peggy Noonan, David Brooks and Kathleen Parker have criticized McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for vice president.
The right-wing extremists call Noonan, Brooks and Parker elitists, but the real new elitists are named Palin, Bachmann, Buchanan and McCain, who believe working-class voters can be appealed to as angry bigots who can be fooled by phony charges such as socialism and phony characters such as Joe. It is the right-wing anger players and anti-foreign jingoists who look down their noses at working people, assuming they are bigoted enough to believe the lies and stupid enough to fail to understand their true economic interests.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/31/goldwate...
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JaimieM1 year, 1 month ago
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Khubani told the Post that infomercials should spend more time on the solution and less on the problem. In other words, don’t talk about belly flab for 25 minutes and then talk about the Tummy Stretcher for 5. The Obamamercial gave viewers tons of gloom and doom, with people talking about the tough economy (from their own houses and driving their own cars) to such an extent that the solution — Obama — hardly seems appropriate to the task involved.
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The ratings will be what depresses Team Obama, though. -
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amervtrn1 year, 1 month ago
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Another video which needs no further explanation.
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Dear Mr.Obama II:ECON101 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM3Ls8NNc5Q
Keep America Free
McCain-Palin 08 -
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nostalgia1 year, 1 month ago
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The Obama campaign is making some serious missteps in the last push in this campaign
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It was arrogant to think voters would sit and listen to him rehash platitudes for 30 minutes
The attacks on Joe the Plumber were very unwise
Now the campaign has thrown reporters from 3 newspapers off of the campaign plane - NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS and the WASHINGTON TIMES. All 3 had endorsed McCain. Makes you wonder what an Obama administration would do to political opponents and those critical of his administration
Now the definition of the wealthy and those who will see tax increases has changed again!
Oct 31, 2008
Today, Obama Campaign Surrogate Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) Further Lowered The Ceiling For Tax Cuts Under An Obama Administration To $120,000:
Gov. Bill Richardson: "What Obama wants to do is, he is basically looking at $120,000 and under, among those that are in the middle class, and there is a tax cut for those." (KOA-AM, Interview With Gov. Bill Richardson, 10/31/08)
You can listen to the tape of the Richardson comment here:
http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21334799/250...-
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well nostalgia, only the goosestepping sect members were taken in by the "joe the plumber" silliness.
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A Vietnam Vet Speaks About Joe the Plumber
Lately, the candidates’ obsession with Average Joe, Joe Six pack and Joe the Plumber got my attention. I’ve been a soldier, oil rig worker, bartender, truck driver, and firefighter; and unlike the plunger pusher from Ohio my thought streams remain clogged by ideas and facts.
...My opinions don’t warrant national attention like Joe the plumber, but I consider myself fortunate. Forty years before I was born, progressive labor leaders fought to get children out of factories and into schools. Civil Service jobs, like firefighter, were given by political appointment and offered no competitive exams for promotion. New York labor marches as late as 1914 had children carrying signs that read, “Support the 72 hour week” and “Please let us play on Sunday.” Decent working conditions, minimum wage and fair trade are all benefits demanded by the many from the few. Before organized labor, employers denied health care, pensions, vacations, or other benefits. Giants of labor sacrificed their lives to get children off factory production lines, and their martyrdom should be neither taken for granted nor forgotten...
Although he signed The Civil Rights Act, Johnson lamented it would cause Democrats to lose the South the next fifty years. He was unaware Republicans would use his signature as a wedge between Democrats and wage earners in the North as well.... Average Joe meanwhile works, reads the paper, watches the news, and between American Idol, the ball game, house repairs, and his kids has little time for political involvement. This limited involvement and television’s convenience make him ripe for manipulation, so he is blissfully unaware four times more of his taxes go to corporate welfare than social welfare.
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Klarissa1 year, 1 month ago
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Interesting comment on the source site:
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Anyone consider the possibility that the informercial on all major channels was merely a way to slush money back to the networks who are needed to do heavy lifting for Obama through election day?
I would not call it a flop.
I call it payback
Obama is the politician who took enough hard left positions early in his career to cement his position with the hard left. Then, he stayed in the background pretending to be all things to all people
I imagine his prime time slots helped the sliding networks with the bottom line. His enormous campaign fund goes mainly to purchase media, or as entagor says, it goes to buy media.
Clever, what?
Since Obama has made a strategy of presnting a decaying America as part of his push for ‘change’, a decaying Aerica was his theme. If the public did not change their opinions, Obama did quite well. His real target was the networks
His handlers know how to move money in, and out, a magical shell game before your very eyes, somewhat legal and authentically nasty
I do not think Obama would give any hard solutions withing days of the election when the smallest facts are already killing him
A wise person recently posted the possibility that the European tour, bigger than his American tour, which sucked up to Europeans at the expense of Americans, was merely a fund raiser for a campaign that had figured out pre paid VISAs and unautheticated charges could expand his fund raising boundaries beyond our borders
Oh for the days fo the Clintons. We did not know what we had back then. The Clintons ran as Americans-
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JamesMarcus1 year, 1 month ago
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Are you seriously suggesting that $1 million from Obama is enough to make the slightest difference to the big networks? A 30-second commercial slot on the Super Bowl now runs $2.7 million. Even the "wise person" you mention in your second-to-last paragraph would have trouble swallowing that argument.
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Oh, and Obama's European trip lasted slightly more than a week. He's been actively campaigning in the U.S. since February 2007. How, then, was his European tour "bigger than his American tour"?
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Klarissa1 year, 1 month ago
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looking at
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/presi...
I don't see much effect for all of that money. -
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FairNBalanced1 year, 1 month ago
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I did not watch it. Its over the top and I think that for likely voters, it was a turn off.
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What really makes me look dow on Obama is the ads he is running in Az. There is really no need for that. It's tacky and Obama is doing it to stick his finger in McCain's face.
No class.-
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CRYMTYPHON1 year, 1 month ago
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I don't quite see the justice of that.
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The midwest has been a major battle ground between traditional conservatism
and people suddenly considering a better domestic economic policy (=they are broke).
Arizona is now only 3 or so points away from swinging to Obama.
Why on earth is it tacky to try and win their electoral votes? -
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Goppy1 year, 1 month ago
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Well, you should contact the RNC ... it's been their strategy to overload the public with 'hyperventilated scandals ... the purpose for which is to instill chaos surrounding Obama ... and to convince undecideds that maybe there IS something wrong with a candidate with Christian Morals.
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I mean, as opposed to the adulterer running in the race.
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NoWayMan1 year, 1 month ago
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more fantasy from the right.
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a flop?
- nearly 35 million viewers.
- compared to nearly 20 million viewers who watched the phillies win the series just after the Obama ad.
- 7 million more viewers than American Idol averages (america's #1 show)
- hell, 3.5 million Americans watched the Obama ad IN SPANISH.
so...
he pummeled the world series, his ratings were higher on all three major networks that broadcast the ad than they were the week beofre in the same time slot, and his ratings were higher than the the #1 show in america.
and you cons are going to try and tell us that it was a ratings flop?
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rlc09101 year, 1 month ago
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Have you Obama lovers been paying attention? First he said "anyone making less than 250,000- their taxes will not increase" then it was "anyone making less than 200,000 will not have a tax increase" last I heard he said "anyone making less than 150,000 will not have a tax increase". I've been working today (some of us do that, we can't watch TV or stay on the computer all day) so I don't know what amount it is as of today.
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Also, if you really listen to his speeches, you will notice one of his favorite phrases (and he uses it alot) is "what I meant to say is" And why is it nobody remembers him saying a long time before the Rev. Wright thing hit the fan, that when he misses his sermons, he gets the tape and listens to it then. He never misses a sermon.
And you Obama supporters, there aren't as many of you as you think, I know some people are actually starting to wise up. The media is doing there best to make it sound like he really has a big lead, well don't bet on it. They do this all the time. They take all these polls, but funny thing- I don't know of anyone that has actually participated in one.
I said at the beginning, that either way we're screwed though. If Obama wins, the taxpayers lose (by the way, who do you think pays corporate taxes? It's the little guy. You have to be really stupid not to realize that) If McCain wins, there will be riots that make the LA riot look like a small parade. That's just the kind of people that would vote for him (look at his associates) You are known by the company you keep.
There's just too much that needs to be pointed out, but there's not enough time or space. -
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sprytling1 year, 1 month ago
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Okay, here's a little bit of logical thought. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich...the top 5% of income earners in the United States. He wants to raise their taxes to do the following:
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Socialized medicine - medicare, medicaid raise
Defense - War in Iraq
He wants to send income tax refunds to people who never paid income tax, paid for by the top 5%
Pay to fix the social security system that originally counted on the next generation to support the seniors
Pay for an $850 Billion dollar bail out
Pay the national deficit
DOESN'T IT SEEM OBVIOUS TO YOU THAT EITHER THE TOP 5% IS GOING TO GO BANKRUPT OR THE MIDDLE CLASS IS GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF EXISTENCE AS WELL?
If they manage to pay for all of the things that Obama is going to raise taxes on them to fix, they will no longer have monies to pay their businesses operational expenses.
COMMUNISTS WANT TO MAKE EVERYONE EQUAL. THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE EVERYONE RICH. SO, LOGICALLY, EVERYONE HAS TO BECOME POOR IN ORDER TO BECOME EQUAL. IN ORDER TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE WHO OBJECT, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT A COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT HAS TO SPY, KILL, TARGET CHILDREN TO TEACH THEM THEIR PHILOSOPHIES, AND TEACH THEM TO SPY AGAINST THEIR PARENTS.
THIS NATION HAS UNDERGONE A TOTAL PHILOSOPHICAL CHANGE REGARDING FREEDOM OF WORSHIP AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH...WHERE DO YOU THINK THAT HAS COME FROM?
COMMUNISTS WANT TO BE IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND IN THE SENATE AND IN THE HOUSE IN THE MAJORITY IN ORDER TO CHANGE OUR CONSTITUTION ALTOGETHER. SOME COUNTRIES WHO LOSE A WAR DON'T GO AWAY...THEY JUST GO ABOUT THEIR WARS IN A DIFFERENT WAY. IN OUR INNOCENCE, AMERICA HAS ALLOWED THEM IN.-
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rlc09101 year, 1 month ago
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Do you honestly think Obama supporters will figure this out? If only it was so simple! They have blinders on. They hate Bush so much and blame him for everything. They can't remember that it was actually Clinton and the Democrates that got us into this mess (if only the media would play some of the tapes from C-Span.) The media is hoping everyone has forgotten that. I challange Obama supporters to do your own research. Every time Congress is in session it's recorded and C-Span is a great resource for those of us who actually care about what our goverment does.
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purpleicon1 year, 1 month ago
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The infomercial was honest, and Obama seems more genuine than McCain. Sure he is out to win, and wants to compete with a powerful Senator known in America, but he strikes it right with the woes of the middle class. McCain has not been able to do that.
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purpleicon1 year, 1 month ago
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Look at how much money is being sucked from the middle class now ( Hello, the $700.00 billion to bail out crooked lending institutions ). This nation is a far cry from Marxism, and socialism, but the economic woes are hurting the middle class the most. Some help with health care and unemployed breadwinners is needed desperately, and McCain won't help nearly as much. The crooked rich and lobbyists are fleecing us much worse under Republican rule. Exxon Mobil is breaking records in profits. We need change now.
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OldBetty1 year, 1 month ago
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1. If one is ready to believe that presidential candidates should be packaged like the newest diet fad or the best egg poacher, I guess the opinions by experts who sell these things would be relevant commentary on Obama's last television presentation.
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2. The number of people who watched would be relevant if you were using that as a vote count or if you really knew exactly who watched. For instance, if only committed Obama supporters watched, that means one thing. But I am a committed supporter and I did not watch because I already have made up my mind. If it was the undecided voters who were watching, the turn out was impressive and significant.
3. It is relevant, though unmentioned by all except one poster, that Wednesday night was the final night of the World Series. In a lot of places around this country that trumps a political speech from anybody. In Philadelphia the ritual involves "preparing for the game as well as watching the game and afterwards "celebrating the game." There is no time focus on other trivia.
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