Bush's negative ad against Kerry's first 100 days employs all the tools of negative advertising.  Click to view the ad (Click the link on the upper right that says "100 Days")and then see if you agree with the analysis to the side and the annotation below.

Script of "100 Days"

(Writing On Screen: http://www.georgewbush.com)

 

PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm George W. Bush, and I approve this message.

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: A president sets his agenda for America in the first 100 days. (White house picture comes together from opposite sides of screen.  On screen writing "First 100 days"  White house rips apart opposite way it came together)

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: John Kerry's plan? (Words Flash On Screen:  JOHN KERRY'S PLAN ON SPENDING AND TAXES) to pay for new government spending (Flashing Words On Screen:  JOHN KERRY'S PLAN)  raise taxes by at least 900 billion dollars  (Pictures of distraught looking black man, hand with pencil on notepad, distraught looking white woman come together from opposite sides of screen, pictures then split apart), On the war on terror, (three pictures of hostile looking faces, probably terrorist, come together on screen.  The camera focuses directly on the terrorist's eyes..  Writing On Screen:  John Kerry's Plan, Weaken fight Against Terrorists in white on red writing) weaken the PATRIOT Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America. (Three pictures come together on screen.  One of Middle Eastern woman with covered face, one of UN soldier, one of man running. Writing On Screen:  John Kerry's Plan, Delay Defending America, ) of And he wanted to delay defending America until the United Nations approved.

 John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense. (Writing On Screen:  John Kerry Wrong On Taxes Wrong On Defense.  On bottom of Screen: APPROVED BY PRESIDENT BUSH AND PAID OR BY BUSH/CHENEY 04, INC.)

Copyright Kevin Lessmann
 2004

In this commercial against John Kerry, the Bush team uses verbal script to tell of events and abstracts and visual imagery to make evaluation of those events.

The announcer reports the abstract of what the commercial will be about with her description of what the president does in the first 100 days.  With her introduction, the audience knows what the commercial will entail and what the narrative will be about.  The audience has no need to guess at what will come next but instead can prepare to witness an attack on John Kerry.

As soon as John Kerry is mentioned, the white house, which came together at the mention of Bush's name, splits apart at the mention of Kerry.  Although the announcer has uttered no words against Kerry as of yet, the image of the white house splitting apart already evaluates the negative effect Kerry will have on the nation if elected president. 

Later, the commercial uses imagery to further evaluate the opposition candidate.  After the announcer mentions the new taxes Kerry will create, pictures of distraught looking Americans flash on the screen.  The announcer makes no reference about how these taxes will affect America, however, the pictures make this reference unnecessary.  The pictures show the faces of Americans not encouraged by a thriving economy, but instead hindered by taxes and most likely unemployed, thus evaluating Kerry's plan as harmful to the American people.  If, instead of these distraught faces the pictures were of happy students or content senior citizens, i.e. the beneficiaries of the taxes, the commercial's evaluation of the tax plan would be the complete opposite. 

The commercial uses imagery in an even more powerful way later.  As the announcer describes Kerry's plans for the Patriot Act, the commercial shows pictures of hostile people, most likely terrorist.  Most powerfully, the middle terrorist looks directly into the camera with a more than threatening look in his eyes.  With the depiction of these threatening terrorists, the commercial associates Kerry's platform with hostile attacks.  The commercial mentions no words of such attacks, but the imagery of the terrorists on screen insinuate an evident danger will arise if the American people elect John Kerry. 

In his own commercial, Kerry could just have easily used the same words about the Patriot Act which would favor his stance.  Instead of picturing the threatening terrorist, the commercial would show pictures of people getting their homes broken into or banks accounts searched as a cause of the Patriot Act.  With these events depicted as results of the Patriot Act instead those shown by the Bush commercial, Kerry' desire to weaken the act would look like the constitutional thing to do not the dangerous plan of action. With these week words coupled with pictures, the power of imagery becomes apparent. 

The verbal script of the commercial uses words and phrases that weakly, if at all, attack John Kerry.  Instead, they factually tell of past and future events about the both candidates. However, the imagery used in the commercial make the ad a strong persuasive tool against the democratic candidate.  This commercial therefore exemplifies the power of  imagery in persuasion.

Finally, the announcers uses a coda to summarize its evaluations of Kerry as a candidate.  Before, the verbal words of the script only told of what Kerry has done.  However, in saying "John Kerry. Wrong on taxes.  Wrong on defense," the commercial makes its first verbal analysis of Kerry's platform.  This evaluation also serves as a coda summarizing the entire commercial.  If in case the audience did not pick up on the splitting photograph imagery or the depiction of hostile terrorist, this coda tells the audience what to think.  There are no insinuations, rather simple statements of evaluation in this conclusion.  In a way, as a voter I feel insulted by the coda because it assumes I have not paid enough attention to pick up on the not-so-subtle hints about Kerry's ineptitude.  Perhaps this blatant attack on Kerry shows the kind of voter the commercial is attempting to appeal to.

In contrast to the other commercials, this commercial uses verbal script to tell of events and imagery to make evaluations of those events.  Nonetheless, the combination of verbal text and imagery script assimilate to produce a complete and convincing narrative.