People who work in advertising are generally, understandably cynical. We get it!
But this ad is more nakedly cynical than most.
You probably saw the Droga5 New York Times campaign about “truth,” which the copy said is both “hard to find” and “more important than ever.” In a new video released yesterday to promote its presence at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the National Rifle Association pretty much recreated the Droga spot with its own spin not long after Donald Trump specifically referenced the work in a tweet calling it “bad.”
So let us look at the accusation here. The ad seems to imply that “media elites” have sparked the “fire” currently consuming our “times” by failing to report on the things mentioned in the video compilation like the rise of the tea party movement, international terrorism, economic uncertainty at home and gun violence in Chicago.
That’s how we read it, at least. But the NYT, along with many other publications, reported on all those things—just as the same outlets carried stories on the vast majority of the 78 terrorist attacks that White House called “underreported” earlier this month. This isn’t really approaching a rational argument. It’s more of an emotional appeal telling viewers that they should trust a professional advocacy group over a news organization. Wonder how they feel about the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times?
NRA, which was a huge outside group supporter of Trump as candidate, flanks Trump on his NYT attacks https://t.co/aG11mOvdGb
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 28, 2017
In a totally unforeseen coincidence, this video echoes an interview by the official White House stenographers at Breitbart, who ran headlines this week about Trump calling the NYT “so evil and so bad” and adding, “The stories are wrong in many cases, but it’s the overall intent.” Trump then referred to more than a dozen women who came out before the election and the Billy Bush tape to claim that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them in the past. He has not made good on his subsequent threats to sue them all.
It’s almost like the guy—who famously cited “an extremely credible source” to tell the world that Barack Obama’s birth certificate was fake and complained about anonymous leaks hours after his own team briefed journalists on condition of anonymity—just can’t handle negative feedback.
Good thing he doesn’t work in advertising!