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| Republican
National Committee
"Really"
Cold Harbor Films |
Female
voiceover [Gore, on television, low and
muddled in background]: There’s Al Gore reinventing
himself on television again. Like I’m not going to notice.
Who’s he gonna be today? . . . [static]
[Asian music] The Al Gore who raises campaign money at a Buddhist temple? [Gore in acceptance speech at convention: "I will fight..."] Or the one who now promises campaign finance reform? Really. [static] Al Gore . . . claiming credit for things he didn’t even do. Gore (video clip): “I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Female voiceover: Yeah and I invented the remote control, too. [static] Another round of this, and I’ll sell my television. |
| Background: Democrats and the Gore campaign
were incensed by this "personal, negative Republican attack ad."
The Gore campaign put out four news releases on the subject on August 31,
starting with a statement from Sen. Lieberman and including a lengthy "Going
Negative Fact Sheet."
Is this type of "personal" -- as opposed to issue-based -- attack acceptable? The fundraising abuses of 1996 are a serious matter and certainly should not be off limits as a subject of discussion. Another question that might well be asked is whether the ad is effective. Some Democrats thought the Republican's use of an attack ad might backfire. Irregardless of whether it did or not, however, the RNC could have come up with a much more effective ad. "Really" attempts to undermine Gore's credibility, but it puts together a couple of disseparate subjects, Gore's Buddhist temple incident and his famous Internet claim, and has a kind of flippant tone. The Buddhist temple incident could be the subject of an entire hard-hitting ad in and of itself, but the producers have chosen to tack on the "Internet" statement and attempt a bit of humor with the result that the ad has an overdone "inside the Beltway" feel to it. "Really" had a website to go with it "gorewillsayanything.com." |