Tuned In, TV Blog, Television Reviews, James Poniewozik, TIME

March 4, 2008 9:26

Ring My Bell: Why the Hillary Ad Works

Posted by James Poniewozik | Comments (18) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

I've been writing a lot this election cycle about the importance of viral and surrogate videos; the other day, I wrote that there hadn't yet been a traditional campaign ad that has had the impact of what we've seen this season on YouTube. I may have to amend that now; if Hillary Clinton does well tonight, a lot of credit will probably go to a very old-fashioned TV spot: her "red phone" ad.

I call it a very old-fashioned ad because, as others have pointed out already, it's apparently heavily inspired by an ad Walter Mondale used effectively against Gary Hart in 1984 (ad starts about 10 seconds in):

For all their similarities, though, there's one difference that makes Hillary's ad especially effective. It's not the message. It's not the narration. It's not even those adorable little children whom Hillary is going to save from being eaten by terrorists.

It's the phone.

The red phone never actually rings in the Mondale ad. But boy, does it ever in Clinton's. Ringing, ringing, ringing. Six damn times. In a movie, real life or an ad, an unanswered phone automatically creates a sense of tension and anxiety--I feel it, uncontrollably, when I re-watch the ad even though I know what's coming. Just pick up the damn phone, somebody! Answer it!

And of course, someone does--Hillary, who restores the aural calm and order, takes care of the problem, silences that freaking phone so we can get some shut-eye. You can argue the implicit charge about Barack Obama if you want, the underlying debate about experience vs. judgment and so on. But that's not the level this ad works on: it works, brilliantly, by creating tension, tension, tension and finally relief--and putting a face on that relief.

You can debate policy all you want, but sometimes politics is just a matter of knowing the right button to push. Or the right bell to ring.

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Reader Comments (18)

Chaddogg:

Sure she answers it...on, like, the SIXTH FREAKING RING!

Hey, that 3 am phone call...I want it answered after 2 rings, max.

(Just kidding....a good ad, although straight out of the Rove playbook if he were running against Obama, I suspect. We'll see tonight if this tact on experience works for Clinton....remember, this ad is only airing in Texas, although it admittedly is viral everywhere else....and the viral responses from Obama supporters are pretty amazing, too.)

Posted by Chaddogg | March 4, 2008 10:12 AM

beerbaron:

Can I propose a new rule for the rest of the primaries and general election: If you voted for the war in Iraq, by many accounts the worst foreign policy blunder in America's history, you don't get to claim superiority on foreign policy or national security issues. So what if Hillary's been a senator for three whole years longer than Obama--most of that time she was campaigning for president, anyways. And couldn't McCain use this exact ad against her in the general election?

It's too bad SNL appears to be deeply in Hillary's pocket, because this ad is just crying out to be parodied. The sketch almost writes itself: Hillary answers a 3 a.m. call to the White House emergency phone, and it's...Bill Clinton! Is Darrell Hammond still on the show?

Actually, nevermind. Hillary would never approve that.

(Hmmm...could that be the reason for SNL's recent pro-Hillary slant? The Clintons are a comedy gold mine. But four years of Al Jolson, er, Fred Armisen, mimicking Obama? Not so much.)

Posted by beerbaron | March 4, 2008 11:08 AM

jbcc54:

It's a wonder that nobody has asked Hillary Clinton if she used the 3AM Red Phone call criteria to decide who to vote for in the 1992 Election.
See this ad:
www.youtube.com/v/4gMTdncC7T8

Posted by jbcc54 | March 4, 2008 11:49 AM

carlos_the_dwarf:

The Daily Show last night was such a fluff job. Sure Jon hit her before she came on but then all he did was toss her soft balls and not call her out on the negative bs she spews all the time. Whats the worst she can? Walk off? She wouldn't do that cuz it would look pretty bad and on Stewarts end imagine the pub they'd get from that. All that being said, they showed this ad and the mondale ad back to back and the big joke at the end was that the older one was a mondale ad. here's my beef with that: essentially hillary got her ad run twice in its entirety. and sure the joke is "looks its a mondale ad hahahah" but how many people who watch the daily show know who mondale even is let alone how that election turned out?
To me it kinda kills Jon Stewarts cred when he'll attack conservatives/republicans but only fellate democrats when they come on. if your whole job is mocking the partisan hack in the main stream media it looks pretty bad when you yourself act the same way.
I say all of this as a huge Daily show/ Corbert report fan.

Posted by carlos_the_dwarf | March 4, 2008 3:01 PM

john

It's a very effective ad but it's point is a sad one -- just about any ad about Hope will always lose out to an ad about Fear. Not to mention garner substantially more media attention.

I lost a lot of respect I had for Mrs. Clinton with that ad. I've been a lifelong donkey, but personally it would be very difficult to support her in the general election if she manages to snag the nomination.

Posted by john | March 4, 2008 3:12 PM

Glenn:

Hillary has 8 previous years of answering the phone at 3am. Of course nobody mentioned that half of the time it was Monica Lewinski wanting to know if Bill could come out and play, and the other half it was the McDougal's from Arkansas wanting to know if they wanted to get in on the ground floor of a land investment that is "Guaranteed" to make them rich. Her ad didn't even have the White House in it at all. You would think that she would have at least got that in the shot! Hillary saying her 8 years as 1st Lady qualifies her to be Commander in Chief is like my wife saying her 8 years of living with me while I worked in Nuclear Power qualifies her to work on a reactor.... Sure she understands the principals, but any 1st year college student can get the principals.

Obama/Edwards 08'

Posted by Glenn | March 4, 2008 3:37 PM

James Poniewozik:

@Glenn: In fairness, I would rather have Marge Simpson running my nuclear power plant than Homer.

@Carlos: You know, I started writing a post about Clinton on TDS and then abandoned it, thinking (1) people are going to get sick of all the politics posts this week and (2) well, it is Jon Stewart, he's not the toughest interviewer. But the one point I had wanted to make--and maybe I should have done the post for this reason--is that Stewart HAS been really tough on McCain in his recent appearances, at least in the last year or two.

Posted by James Poniewozik | March 4, 2008 4:06 PM

Loren:

I love short memories. Iraq the worst foreign policy blunder in American history? Please, anybody remember a country in South East Asis called Viet Nam.

Haven't seen the ad, thank god, but it would annoy me to think that she thought anyone would be fooled by that. Experience is not the important issue, but what you have learned from that experience and from what I've seen of Hillary is all that she has learned is to be more duplicitous.

I believe that Obama has correctly pointed out that no one has experience facing the decisions that the President faces except the President alone. Sleeping in the same bed, being his sounding board (tempting to misspell and write "broad", but that is something Hillary has never been), being his closest advisor, none are experience, only verisimilitude, and that is exactly what Hillary is trying to do, suggest truth when none exists, as least as far as her being the best person to lead our country at this time.

Like the writer who repeats the pundits' overstatement of Iraq as the worst foreign policy blunder, our current political landscape seems to favor foregetting history, and Hillary's candidacy is based on forgetting what a divisive person she proved as merely the First Lady, and how much better can we expect it be be with her as President? The ad suggests how, picking up the phone after 6 rings at 2 a.m. speaks loads about how she will be as President - calculating, cold and indifferent, only being bothered to act in the right way when the problem becomes so insistent it has driven everyone else to tears.

Posted by Loren | March 4, 2008 4:25 PM

carlos_the_dwarf:

@James- I was thinking the same thing about McCain, maybe Jon feels like its ok to give McCain a hard time cuz they've known each other for a while now, but he felt like he need to give Hillary a powder puff interview incase he wants to try to get her back on the show.
Also i stayed up late to watch the 1st run of TDS last night so that i would be well informed for todays tuned-in recap of HRC on TDS.(In Denver Comcast runs the west coast feed of Com Cent so everything is on an hour later than on the east or west coasts eg TDS is on at midnight here...wacky mountain time)

Posted by carlos_the_dwarf | March 4, 2008 6:04 PM

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