Tuesday, October 7, 2014

"Say Yes to the Candidate"

I stumbled across an interesting article on Facebook the other day that led me to an ad from the College Republican National Committee. It's a spoof of the TLC show "Say Yes to the Dress" that features multiple takes of the same scene, just with different candidates' names. The idea is that the younger, fashionable girls prefer the Republican wedding gown, while the bride's mother prefers a more traditional, costly Democratic wedding gown. I don't feel the need to state my political beliefs or delve into who is right or wrong, I just found it a very unique way to make a political campaign ad.



I'm not fond of talking politics and I definitely don't like political ads, but I also do not understand them. If a political ad alone changes your vote, you probably shouldn't be voting in the first place. Plus, the purpose of most campaign ads is to belittle the opponent. I find it hard to stand behind anyone that supports this method, even if they have good intentions or didn't create the ad.

That being said, this ad is interesting because of the approach. I don't agree or disagree with anything in the video necessarily, but I admire the attempt at something different. However, the attempt seems to offend and anger most of the female population, especially younger twenty-somethings, as far as I can tell from reactions online. I admit that women love to shop and we spend a lot of time thinking about our wedding plans, but to compare a dress/fashion with a political candidate seems unfair for women and for the candidates! It's creative in certain ways, but the creativity was directed poorly. Women should be expected to vote based on the same criteria and credentials as everyone else, no fluff. This wedding dress ad sure seems like a lot of fluff...and if they've got a wedding dress idea, do they have an ad in the works for men choosing a beer or sports team candidate? Seems to me that they've made a joke of choosing a political candidate and I don't think that will help anyone out.

As a final note, I looked through the videos on YouTube for the various "episodes" and found it very unusual that all of the comments were disabled. In my mind, it says something about the creators and the spectators...

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