Taylor Halperin
My ad was created around two philosophies. First: that a successful attack ad should have a cohesive narrative. I chose to critique Van Buren both generally and specifically, but I dealt primarily with economy and M.V.B.’s character. Even the music in my ad serves to further my argument, gradually getting louder and more intense as the criticisms of Van Buren grow more and more biting. Second, I theorized that a successful attack ad should value quality and continuity over quantity. I neglected to put over eighty percent of the images and quotes I found in the video itself because too much information would have detracted from and clouded my thesis. For example, I would have loved to dedicate some additional slides to criticizing Van Buren’s patriotism, as Dutch was his first language (and I found several accounts that he had a slight accent when he spoke), but I realized that voicing concerns over M.V.B.’s Americanism would have hurt my video more than help it. Extraneous information would inflate and thereby decentralize my argument.
The structure of my video was equally important as the philosophy behind it. I chose to alternate hard-hitting quotes with images of Van Buren to get across two distinct messages. The quotes were meant to critique Van Buren in a more general sense, lambasting his decisions while in office (economic and otherwise), while the images were designed to speak to specific issues that the president had failed to address as well as his inability to redress issues at all.
The first two quotes were meant to capture the pugnacious spirit of the age by making the bold claim that America lay in complete and utter ruin. I made sure to edit out Van Buren’s name from both passages because I wanted to first establish the size and scope of the existing crisis before introducing the Democrat as the cause of said crisis. This allowed me to subtly slander Van Buren without seeming particularly aggressive, much less gratuitously antagonistic.
The first image was a political cartoon depicting Van Buren straddling a fence. I chose this image for two reasons. First, I wanted to show (rather than tell) the viewer my argument. The subject of the image is clearly and instantly recognizable as M.V.B. Juxtaposing this image directly after the first two quotes impels the viewer establish for his or herself that it was Van Buren who caused America to fall into an age of “misery and ruin”. In this way, the outrage the viewer is made to feel earlier over the country’s destitution is retroactively assigned to Van Buren. Second, it portrays Van Buren as an ineffective and indecisive leader who was and will continue to be unable to satiate the American public.
Next, I added a quote that coldly laid out Van Buren’s three most unforgivable economic failings: “derangement” of the American currency, “depression” of the American economy, and the “consequent distress” between businessmen that resulted from his “infamous and aristocratic measures.” The tone of the quote is, at least in relation to other accounts of Van Buren’s economic policy, more descriptive than it is derogatory. I wanted to be sure my video was hypercritical without being overcritical and petty.
The second image showed Van Buren being chased by a hoard of wild animals. It satirized the notion being propagated by Democrats that the westernmost states would vote for Van Buren. The cartoon served a two-pronged purpose in my attack ad: first, it argued that the president was no friend to the West, and second, it tapped into a method of criticism common to the age – portraying Van Buren in absurd situations. The effect of depicting M.V.B. being chased by animals is similar to the one produced by modern political cartoons that depict George W. Bush with simian features – it prevents the viewer from taking the candidate seriously.
Next, I situated a second quote relating to Van Buren’s economic failings. This was meant to expound upon the last quote. While the text faded out, I underlaid a second layer of text for two key terms in the quote – “treachery” and “oppression” – in red, thereby suggesting that Van Buren committed acts so detrimental to America’s general welfare that they effectively constituted treason.
The third image depicted Van Buren as a smirking opossum. At this point in the ad, the music lets up briefly, allowing the viewer a moment to laugh at the preposterousness of the image. While this part of the video may not relate to any specific policy failing on the part of the Democrat, I think it is crucial to the ad’s ability to convince the viewer of Van Buren’s impotence. A candidate’s character was extremely important to the American electorate in this age, and to portray a man as an animal was to disparage both his character and his competence.
The next quote is arguably the most effective aspect of the movie. It posed a basic and yet trenchant question to the viewer: do you want another four years of Van Buren at the helm of the American government? As the quote faded out, I used the same editing trick as before to freeze on the words “foreign-born” and “anti-federalist” in red lettering after the rest of the passage had faded out (to further slander Van Buren’s character).
The last image showed Van Buren (and, by inference, the nation itself) drowning under the weight of his poor decisions while in office, fading out on a close-up of his frazzled expression. Meanwhile, Harrison is depicted standing atop a barrel of hard cider. The river is notated as “Salt River,” which was a term used to describe political misfortune during the 1830’s and 1840’s.
The image of Williams Henry Harrison on horseback at the end of the video gets across my second-most important point – that Harrison deserves the viewer’s vote. I used the Star-Spangled Banner because the Whig campaign created several campaign songs for Harrison set to the tune of the national anthem (and, as I was unable acquire recordings of those songs, I decided use an instrumental version). The image is also meant to conjure up comparisons between Harrison and George Washington.
Quote: “the depression of business”
Headline: White Plains, Sept. 10th, 1840; Article Type: Letters
Paper: Hudson River Chronicle, published as The Hudson River Chronicle;
Date: 09-22-1840; Volume: 3; Issue: 49; Page: [2]; Location: Sing-Sing, New York
Link.
Quote: “A crisis more momentous…”
Headline: [No Headline]; Article Type: Legislative Acts/Legal Proceedings
Paper: New-Hampshire Patriot, published as New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette;
Date: 08-03-1840; Volume: VI; Issue: 305; Page: [1]; Location: Concord, New Hampshire
Link.
Quote: “treachery and oppression…”
Headline: Bank Failure; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Hudson River Chronicle, published as The Hudson River Chronicle;
Date: 10-22-1839; Volume: 3; Issue: 1; Page: [3]; Location: Sing-Sing, New York
Quote: “The Harrison standard”
Headline: [Farmer; North Bend; Kinderhook; Europe; English; American; Farmer]; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Haverhill Gazette, published as Essex Gazette;
Date: 04-11-1840; Volume: IV; Issue: 15; Page: [2]; Location: Haverhill, Massachusetts
Image: Settin’ on a Rail, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661308/
Image: All the West Going for Matty, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661388/
Image: An Interesting Family, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661387/
Image: Matty’s Perilous Situation up Salt River, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661390/
Image: General Williams H. Harrison, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001700071/
Music:
Rachmaninoff
The Star-Spangled Banner