Question for readers:
Is this a good, effective ad, vividly making the point that the U.S. needs to do something about gun violence?
Or does it backfire because it embeds an insult to a broad array of Americans?
I think it backfires.
First, take sixty seconds and watch:
I picked this ad because it demonstrates a point that I make frequently in this blog. Political speech has a text and a subtext. There is the denoted meaning, and then are other meanings that reflect the premises and worldview embedded in the message. Sometimes those other meanings undermine the denoted meaning.
In fact, it happens often. People read a respectful tone as weakness. People interpret a candidate who refuses to dignify an insult to be admitting there is truth to the insult. People suspect a person who is endorsed by a powerful person or group is a puppet of the endorser.
There is no question that this ad is powerful. As a parent and an owner of a swimming pool I found myself mentally counting out seconds as I watched the mother pray at poolside. Get in, pull the child out, NOW!!! The group that produced the ad is proud of it. Mothers for Democracy is a progressive grassroots group that describes itself as an opposition group to Texas Gov. "Greg Abbott's extreme agenda" which "blossomed into a nationwide organization." Their website proudly showcases ads that have gone viral, including this one.
So what's wrong with the ad?
The denoted message of the ad is stated in these words at the end of the ad.
But there is a second, non-denoted message: An insult to religion and people of faith. The ad turns the mother and bystanders into monsters ignoring a drowning child. The analogy of ignoring gun violence may seem fair-minded to Mothers for Democracy, but it will seem offensive and unfair to gun owners and gun-rights supporters. It will seem offensive to people who pray. The ad mocks religion: Look at that kook mother, kneeling and praying while her daughter dies. A Pew Research Center poll reported that 55% of Americans pray daily and another 21% pray from time to time. Pew reported that 63% of American Christians say that "praying regularly is an essential part of their Christian identity." That is a big group to offend. People who pray don't think they are kooks or blind in the face of an unfolding tragedy.
The subtext message here is the Hillary Clinton "deplorable" sneer. Democrats wonder why evangelical Christians would attach themselves to a flagrantly immoral sociopathic narcissist like Donald Trump. What are they thinking? They are thinking about ads like these, where they are made to look silly by Democrats. Trump may be a charlatan, but he pretends to care about the Bible. Meanwhile those snobby Democrats mock us.
Democrats forget Martin Luther King, Jr. America made progress on civil rights when religion was linked to social justice. Rev. King urged Americans to do the right thing, the just thing, the thing that reflected Christian values. There is no need for Democrats to be the anti-religion party.
I consider the ad an unforced error. I show it here so Democrats can learn from it and do better.
As a previous marketing director, I know that two things make ads more effective and memorable - one is humor, and the other is dissonance. They've tried to combine the two in a very clear message and I personally like the bold satire because just like protesting for the right to vote, or civil rights or whatever the cause, sometimes you have to take a risk of offense or backlash to get through the preconceived or predisposed indoctrinated beliefs and self-serving rhetoric to the root of the issue. Why are we the only developed nation with such a horrific gun/murder problem? What is it going to take to change the cowboy mindset to accept common sense gun regulation? Now that we're out of covid lockdown we're seeing the mass murders return - I hope it upsets some people, I hope even one gets the message to reconsider their response. Look at the responses at large on YouTube - majority support this ad, and those against use the same tired bulls##+$^.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/
The agriculture industry contains many very conservative people of faith. Before the Trump takeover, it wasn't uncommon to see and hear actions and comments that would cause me to wonder where the folks were getting their information from. The Trump era, and Fox and the internet have made it clear that many conservative Christians and others hold their beliefs strongly and have no interest in revising them. They have heard what they want to hear and are against what they have been told to be against. Attacking them, or even suggesting alternatives, is fruitless. Prayer is included in their reality and, as you point out, it is offensive to them to see it denigrated.
And at the other end of the ad, many people I know really believe that any sort of gun control including magazines, waiting periods, or any restrictions at all, are the first step in taking all guns away from people. That fear trumps all others, including the murder of children (as long as they are other people's children.)