Comments on: Implicit Ads…Willie Horton vs. Playboy Ford

By: Willie Horton and the Playboy Mansion « The Blog and the Bullet

Willie Horton and the Playboy Mansion « The Blog and the Bullet — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:23:23 +0000

[...] Jack Stephens on April 22nd, 2007 Dr. Lester K. Spence, who’s blog has the same name, posts two campaign ads (one from George H. W. Bush’s ‘88 campaign and one from the recent Tennessee senate [...]

By: Lester Spence

Lester Spence — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:18:09 +0000

They were only successful because they weren’t challenged…and Ford only lost by a tiny tiny amount. I do not foresee anything similar happening to Obama for two reasons:
1. Obama is much more willing to fight these types of ads.
2. The political climate benefits democrats and I don’t see the use of this type of ad “100 times worse” doing anything other than turning off voters.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:15:36 +0000

What people don’t seem to address is the fact that even though these political commercials were blatantly racist, there were also quite successful if you examine the election results for both candidates. If Obama becomes a truly serious threat (wins in Iowa and New Hampshire) we are going to see something 100 times worse than Horton or Ford.

By: Lester Spence

Lester Spence — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:11:47 +0000

there isn’t as much stuff going on. to me it hit the same notes though. what surprises me is that when the ad was out there were few people willing to call it what it was. a few years later even the person responsible for the ad acknowledged that it was racist.

By: albatross

albatross — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:09:14 +0000

I guess the thing that surprised me was how tame and inoffensive the Willie Horton ad seemed, compared to the stuff I saw all the time in the last couple elections. Have political ads just gotten nastier over time?

By: LLR

LLR — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:27:47 +0000

I always thought the Ford ad was mean to paint Ford as a â€œliberalâ€ because he was running a â€œI Love Jesusâ€ campaign doing ads in his church and quoting the bible on the campaign trail. Thatâ€™s why they day the playboy bunny and the porn producer were in the ad. No one ever mentions the porn producer in the ad. I just thought it was about porn and playboy bunnies in a conservative state in the bible belt.