I was assigned presidential advertisements from 2004, and I got to see commercials from the Democratic National Convention and John Kerry. My absolute favorite one was titled “Turned the Corner,” and it started with a montage of Bush saying the country would “turn the corner” for a certain issue. Then, the ad showed various graphs (which our class would’ve laughed at for how mathematically-wrong they were) where things were going “wrong.” There was a graph showing the price of gas increasing, another one showing the amount of jobs decreasing and much much more. The funniest part was the goofy song they had playing over it, like Bush’s claims were straight out of a clown circus.

I think this ad was a prime of attacking the opponent. I don’t think it said anything about John Kerry or Democrats until the very end, if that. What made it so eye-catching was the humor that they put into it. Coming from someone who loves to laugh, humor is a great way to reach your audience. Even thinking about Super Bowl commercials and how a lot of insurance companies have running jokes, it’s crazy how much of a hold humor has over viewers. It’s almost as if the ad is telling us if it makes you laugh, it must be a good thing. And if it’s a good thing, you should vote for it, buy it, talk about it, etc. I think that the media shapes how we think about the world around us just as much as our parents and peers. The amount of power it has is almost scary.