The many layers of the ‘Celeb’ Ad

One of the amazing things about the new ‘Celeb’ ad from the McCain campaign is how many layers there are to the imagery of Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears and how that imagery relates to Obama, making the attack ad even worse than it would appear on the surface.

First off, there is no doubt that the McCain campaign wants subliminal messages about Paris and Brittney to be transferred over to Obama, as they’ve admitted as such.

So what imagery are we talking about here?  Campaign chief Rick Davis says that he’s trying to get across the idea that Obama is “frivolous and irresponsible” just like Paris and Brittney.  But this is pretty high level.

Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way:  McCain’s campaign is basically saying that Obama is a so-called “bad” celebrity.

Let’s unpack this claim.  Why exactly are Paris and Brittney sees as “frivolous and irresponsible”?

1. They take for granted and abuse their wealth and fame (see: uppity)
2. They’re over-sexualized
3. They have bad family lives (especially Brittney)
4. They are undeservedly famous (at least Paris is, and does anyone still remember when Brittney was actually successful?)

OK, let’s take a look at these:

Point 1 (they take for granted and abuse their wealth and fame) and Point 4 (they are undeservedly famous) largely go together as they relate to Obama.  The first point is basically the definition of “uppity,” and the “uppity black male” is basically the definition of an African American who is above where they should be.  This ties directly into the “they are undeservedly famous” lines, as Obama is not only a celebrity when he probably shouldn’t be, but he is undeservedly so as well.

Now, what do many people think of when they tie “black man” and “undeserved” together?  That’s right: Affirmative Action.  This unskilled, no-accomplishments black man is trying to undeservedly take away a job from a higher qualified, more deserving white man.  Obama has no right to the Presidency because he hasn’t done anything worthwhile.  He’s just an uppity celebrity black man who is trying to use his fame to unjustly take the Presidency from John McCain, who is obviously entitled to the position.

The second point is that many people see Paris and Brittney as over-sexualized.  There are basically two ways to take this, neither of them respectable:

1) Obama is himself over-sexualized.  I’m not sure this has any inherent racist undertones and I’m not sure anyone who believe this claim anyway, but it is certainly an image that Obama is morally corrupt.

2) Obama likes dating your white daughters.  This is take which is trying this ad to the “Call Me” ad run against Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006.  This isn’t necessarily a bad reading either, given that the person who produced that ad now works for McCain.

The 3rd point is basically the image that Paris and especially Brittney is a bad family person.  This one might be the most personal of all the attacks, as it suggests that Obama would basically put himself above anything and everything else – even his own family.  This might make even more sense given Obama’s response to McCain’s claim that Obama wants to lose to the terrorists so he can win the election, by Obama saying “do you think I would risk my own family.”  This reading of the ad would suggest that the response is “yes, you would.”

Choosing Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears wasn’t a coincidence.  It’s not because “they’re the 2nd and 3rd most famous people in the world” since, as Newsday notes, neither didn’t even make Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list of the supposed top 100 celebrities.

There may even be more layers than this to the ad, but these were some of the most obvious ones to me.