The presidential race is now officially joined and the web is shaping up as a new kind of battleground for the candidates, a video battleground. Following Barack Obama’s shrewd move last week to announce his candidacy on the web, Hillary Clinton followed suit by announcing the formation of her presidential exploratory committee with her own video.
Clinton, however, upped the ante by producing a video rich with production values. Unlike Obama’s man-sitting-in-front-of-camera effort, which was effective due solely to Obama’s innate oratorical skills, Clinton’s video is something else…a snapshot of an earnest, warm (not an adjective usually used in connection with Clinton), serious, capable and inviting friend.
Clinton sits on a couch in a tastefully decorated room rich with details — lovely roses in a vase, photos of friends and family, a needlepoint pillow, a french windowed-door that opens to a sunny and green garden. At one point during the 1 minute, 45 second video, she leans back and casually drapes her arm over that pillow.
Very, very effective. The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday positively gushes today about the video, calling it a “sun-drenched blockbuster” and “a veritable showpiece of Hollywood-style set design, lighting and cinematography.”
The effect was one of breathtaking political shrewdness and brilliant staging, like a mash-up between “The West Wing” and Diane Keaton’s latest holiday heartwarmer. And for all its studied spontaneity, its air of having been pre-tested, choreographed, and managed to within a microfiber of Clinton’s mascara, it worked, if only to provide a little eye candy within a grainy sea of canned speeches and awkward iChats.
Clinton wasn’t the only presidential candidate to throw her hat into the ring this weekend, although you wouldn’t know that simply from reading the headlines. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) also announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nod yesterday at a rally in Topeka yesterday. But, not to be left out of the web video craze, Brownback, too, produced a video.
Jeff Jarvis has an excellent analysis of the two videos which he calls “A Tale of Two Tapes.” Jarvis compares the messages of the two videos and he doesn’t make a judgment about which of the two is better, but I’ll do that. Brownback’s video is good (although, as Jarvis points out, Brownback looks like he’s at Mount Vernon, which is a tad too obvious…and the frequent references to G-d could prove creepy to all but the hard-core right), but Clinton’s video is a superb piece of political craftsmanship.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:35 AM|Comments(0)
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