| Kerry Tax Cut ad | ||||||||||||||||||
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 In this ad of Kerry's, the contender goes a bit negative. First, view the ad (click the upper right hyperlink on the page that pops up reading, "Click to see RealVideo of 'Tax Cuts') then note the annotated script of the ad below. An analysis of both the script and the full commercial are on the next column.
Copyright Kevin Lessmann |
From a Labovian analysis of the verbal script,
Kerry's tax cut advertisement represents one of the most complete narratives
of the four commercials. The commercial begins with a concise
abstract of what the commercial will be about. Immediately after
this abstract, the announcer tells the audience of Kerry's
voting to eliminate the marriage penalty, an event. Notice the visual
evaluation of Kerry offered in the commercial. While the announcer
tells of Kerry's plan, the commercial shows video of Kerry giving a
speech. Perhaps the most subtle and convincing part of this video
are the flashbulbs that go off while Kerry gives the speech. The
video, with the flashes going off, is not one of simply a man giving a
speech, but rather an important person with cameras shooting him almost in
movie star fashion.
Next, the announcer discusses Kerry's economic plan. Once again the announcer uses an abstract to tell the audience what the narrative is about. This time, instead of telling of an event to show Kerry's strengths, the announcer offers a prolepsis, telling the audience what Kerry will do in the future. The commercial suggests that the audience should rest assured, with the offering of this prolepsis, that the candidate will act admirably in the office of the President. The commercial, telling what Kerry has done in the past and also what he will do in the future, thus gives the audience a near complete view of Kerry the candidate. Once again, the commercial uses video imagery to complete its narrative. While describing Kerry's economic plan, the commercial shows a successful family eating breakfast together. Next, the commercial shows a factory worker busy on the job. Both these scenes, complete events in themselves, offer evaluations of Kerry as president. The commercial suggests that if Kerry becomes President, the country can expect more people to be able to eat with their families and go to work as busily employed laborers. The videos on the screen are therefore depictions of events and evaluations of what America will be like under Kerry. After securing Kerry's positive image, the commercial then shifts to influencing the audience's perception of President Bush. The announcer uses a short abstract to inform the audience that the commercial will now focus on George Bush. Instead of offering orientations of Bush's character, the commercial uses events, painted in negative ways, to make the president look like a poor leader. The announcer states that Bush, "supported tax breaks for exporting jobs" and that he "raided Social Security to pay for a tax cut for millionaires." Although both events are true, the diction the announcer uses to describe the events suggests that they are convincing flaws against the president. President Bush, quite certainly, did not support tax breaks in hopes of exporting jobs, but rather in hopes of strengthening the productivity of domestic companies. Furthermore, the announcer could just have easily used "borrowed" or "used" instead of "raided" to describe Bush's support for his tax cut. However, by using raid, the announcer makes an evaluation of Bush's actions and encourages the audience to judge Bush as an irresponsible thief of American money. Thus, without using any blatantly negative sentences such as "he's a bad president" or "he's bad for America," the language of the commercial still suggests to the audience that President Bush is just that. As most of the others do, this commercial uses visual imagery to emphasize the announcer's point. While the announcer tells of Bush's economic plans, the commercial shows pictures of Bush looking worried and confused. Not only, then, does the commercial's language suggest that Bush makes poor economic policies, the visual imagery of a confused and worried Bush suggests that the president does not even feel confident in his own decisions and does not know what to do about the economy. Contrast this image of Bush with the image of Kerry speaking confidently with the African American woman when the announcer tells of his economic plan. Kerry, contrary to Bush, looks confident and intelligent and once again the commercial encourages the audience into doubting Bush's plans and supporting Kerry's. And if showing worried pictures of Bush is not enough, the commercial then shows footage of an empty work building. This image contrasts with the image of the factory worker thriving under Kerry's leadership. The image of the building offers a prolepsis of what will happen to the country if Bush continues his tenure in office. Instead of a busy workplaces under Kerry's leadership, the workplaces under Bush will be abandoned. Thus, some of the strongest evaluations of Bush as president come not through direct words, but instead through imagery. Kerry's tax cut ad is one of the most complete narrative in the group of commercials. While its words alone nearly form a complete narrative, the visual images and scenes depicted in the commercial complete the narrative and make a convincing argument against the president and in favor of the senator from Massachusetts. |
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