AD CONTEXT: THE EDUCATION DIALOGUE

Education has been a central issue in the Maryland race for governor almost from the start. Governor Bob Ehrlich (R) has touched on education in eight of his twelve television ads as of early October. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D), Ehrlich's challenger, has discussed education in five of his eight ads. Education is obviously considered a crucial issue by each campaign, which explains why Governor Ehrlich chooses this issue to frame his first bio spot.

On July 18, Mayor O'Malley released an ad called “Mom” in which he discusses his upbringing and how that shaped his fitness for the job of Maryland's Governor. Mayor O'Malley's final line in this advertisement, before his mother endorses him as a fit candidate, centers on “our fight to help every working family in Maryland have the same opportunities we did.” One of these opportunities, discussed earlier in the advertisement, is “a good education, including college.” Finally, Mayor O'Malley presents himself as coming from a family background that “was never about money.” Echoes of Martin O'Malley's humble beginning and the importance of education are apparent in Governor Ehrlich's “Opportunity.”

AD ASSUMPTIONS: EDUCATION, THE TROJAN HORSE

“Opportunity” purports to deal with the topic of education. Upon closer inspection, though, the ad even more so presents Governor Ehrlich as the archetypal common man. Certainly the ad addresses education; the opening line frames the ad in terms of the Governor's commitment to education, and Robert Ehrlich himself talks about the need for “every child in Maryland to live that dream” of having educational opportunities. However, the ad works on another, subtler level to present Governor Ehrlich as the common man and endear him to viewers using the conventions of the bio spot. Governor Ehrlich constructs himself as the typical American of humble origins who uses family values and rolled-up sleeves to make his own way and reach success – the Horatio Alger myth that has come to characterize American culture. By presenting himself as a simple representative of the common man, the underlying argument is that he will always put the common good above all else (Morreale, 1993).

Education, then, is merely a vehicle by which to represent this common man archetype and to function as a key part of Governor Ehrlich's biography and, hence, his identity as a leader. Typically, incumbents use bio spots to discuss their accomplishments during their time in office. However, incumbents can also use the bio spot format in an effort to change their image (Morreale, 1993). For Ehrlich, this is an important strategic move as it presents him not as a Republican incumbent in a mostly Democratic state, but as an independent leader with humble origins that viewers can identify with. In a sense, then, education acts as a Trojan horse. As in Greek mythology, where a town under siege was lulled into accepting a gift with a surprise payload of enemy soldiers, this ad pulls the viewer in, only to reveal inside a testament to Governor Ehrlich's character rather than a discussion of the his record of achievement on schools.

Thus, instead of outlining his education policies in “Opportunity,” Governor Ehrlich discusses his own experiences with education in order to demonstrate his character, a hallmark of the bio spot (Nelson and Boynton, 1997). Ehrlich details the hard work that went into his education while remaining humble about the experience, noting that, "I was given an education and an opportunity to succeed in life." By characterizing his opportunity to get an education in America as a gift, Governor Ehrlich argues that he had to continually work hard and honor his parents' sacrifices in order to make good on such a precious gift. He then makes reference to the difficulties associated with the price of higher education, explaining that his “folks didn't come from a lot of money.” The allusion to familiarity with financial hardship, along with the colloquial constructions of “folks” and “a lot,” further reinforce Robert Ehrlich's image as an ordinary citizen, which helps foster identification between the Governor and the potential voter. Even while attending a prestigious institution such as Princeton, Governor Ehrlich narrates that he “sold sandwiches for pocket money,” a way of removing any elitist, Ivy League connotations that may be at work in the minds of the audience.

Visually, the advertisement also presents markers that attest to the Governor's status as a common man. After the ad's framing scene of children running happily from a school bus, we are presented with a medium-distance shot of Governor Ehrlich in a casual polo shirt in front of a row of brick houses flying the U.S. and Maryland flags. The houses have nicely manicured lawns and white edging, evoking images of Small Town, America. After a montage of images that make up the bulk of the advertisement (discussed later), we are brought to the same image for a short shot and then transitioned to a family scene. The scene takes place on a wooden porch with a verdant background. Governor Ehrlich hands a football off to his youngest son, who is shown seated in his adoring mother's lap, passing on the torch of the wholesome, white American male to a new generation. Meanwhile Governor Ehrlich gazes off camera with the look of a prophet, entertaining visions of Maryland's future. These scenes of Governor Ehrlich situated in the small town as a family man, are archetypal in political advertising and work to create identification with the viewer by tapping into the twin American myths of small town and family man (Morreale, 1993).

THE AMERICAN DREAM IN SEPIA TONE

“Opportunity” presents an account of Governor Ehrlich's life and education that taps into the ideal of the American Dream. As the “official mythology of our society,” the American Dream says that although people do not necessarily start with the same economic or social advantages, anyone can excel and reach the top with hard work and perseverance (Jhally, 1992, p. 68). Many scholars have noted that institutional barriers exist, which make this dream more or less realizable for differing groups of people. Importantly, though, the myth still resonates with Americans, and “Opportunity” capitalizes on those beliefs to show how the viewer can achieve just like Ehrlich.

Governor Ehrlich starts his discussion of education by explaining that he came from a family in which money was tight. He worked hard, though, and as a result was able to secure scholarships for college and make ends meet by selling sandwiches. All this hard work paid off for Bob Ehrlich, and it is his desire that others be given the same opportunities. Visually, the family photograph montage in the center of the ad works to support this idea of hard work and opportunity. Governor Ehrlich is shown at the start with a loving, nuclear family, from which we see him grow to a young man (complete with sandwich bag). We see images of Bob Ehrlich the hardworking student and athlete, followed by photographs of him in graduation robes, accompanied by proud parents. The photo of Bob Ehrlich as a strapping young lad on the football field is particularly important to the construction of the American Dream in the ad. As Morreale (1993) writes, “The candidate as athlete becomes a metaphor for the typical American: strong, healthy, and virile. The athlete is both an individual achiever and a member of a team, and thus the image can support either Republican or Democratic versions of the American Dream” (p. 8). The movement of images as a whole in “Opportunity” tells a story that reinforces the verbal narrative of the American Dream.

How does this construction of the Dream reach the viewer? The American Dream narrative creates a warm familiarity with the viewer by tapping into the wider collective memory of American culture. While the ad on the surface is testifying to Ehrlich's formative family experiences and hard work, on another level, the ad is stitching together a series of snapshots that remind us of the “good old days.” This evocation of simpler times is a function of political nostalgia. Political nostalgia pilfers images from our common collective memory, but goes a step further, blurring “distinctions between what may have actually happened in a community's past and what the community longs for or believes might have happened” in order to make a political argument (Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles, 2002, p.12). “Opportunity” uses nostalgic images to associate Governor Ehrlich positively with a rosy time in our history that we cannot go back to, leaving us with a sense of longing. Whether or not that time ever existed in the way it is framed by the ad is beside the point – the political nostalgia simply attempts to use Governor Ehrlich as a gateway back to such an elusive time and space.

Two visual strategies combine to imbue this ad with a feeling of nostalgia. First, the montage uses still photographs instead of moving film footage. Photographs themselves elicit feelings of nostalgia (Sontag, 1977). Moreover, the color of these photographs is important. Initially, the photographs are presented in black and white, a marker of authenticity and “original truth” (Barthes, 1993, p. 81). Although we move to color photographs for the images of Bob Ehrlich the graduate (with a short stop in technicolor for Bob Ehrlich the athlete), the background images of the montage remain sepia-toned throughout. Sepia tones—an overall washing of an image in shades of brown—represent bygone eras and evoke feelings of nostalgia in viewers (Dellamora, 1996). In this montage section of the ad, a light flicker is also used throughout in order to evoke an old reel-to-reel projector, almost as if we were being shown these photos in a slide show from an era long past. To support this “old-timey” feel, the blurred, cut-out shots of 1950s and 1960s America and Robert Ehrlich's family are also made to look even older than they are.

The montage of sepia-toned photographs that dreamily fade in and out, complete with backdrops of old newspapers, accentuate the political nostalgia of “Opportunity.” In political advertisements, nostalgia can serve as a tool that allows voters to map out their own past experiences while allowing the candidate to associate themselves with particular moments in time and history that serve their political goals in the present. Governor Ehrlich is depicted as growing up and flourishing in a time of quiet streets, lazy front porch afternoons, football games, and safe neighborhood schools—images that elicit feelings of nostalgia. Stuart Tannock (1995) has written that “nostalgia functions as the search for continuity,” and in “Opportunity,” Governor Ehrlich puts himself forward as the linkage, in line with the American Dream, between an idealized past and an uncertain future (p. 456). In the ad, policy concerns about issues such as education are overpowered by voters' needs to be shielded from too much change, preserving the shared Dream.

CONCLUSION

Governor Ehrlich's Web site hosts the ad, and spends some time giving greater detail to the claims made in the ad.

http://www.bobehrlich.com/multimedia/details.aspx?ID=17

This article from the Baltimore Sun talks about Ehrlich's plans to release a flurry of TV ads in August, but does not mention this ad directly:

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Morreale, J. (1993). The presidential campaign film: A critical history. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Nelson, J. S. & Boynton, G. R. (1997). Video rhetorics: Televised advertising in American politics. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Parry-Giles, S.J. & Parry-Giles, T. (2002). Constructing Clinton: Hypperreality & presidential image-making in postmodern politics. New York: Peter Lang.

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