Aqua Buddha?

Of course this midterm election brings us the most memorable, outstanding, and example-setting ads we could ever imagine, right? Well, of course not. But this time around, it is particularly disturbing.

Imagine if corporations could create ads based on the same standards our future leaders set. We would be convinced beer would make us smarter, cigarettes would improve our breathing and cure asthma, insurance companies would pay double what our insured valuables are worth, soup could cure the flu and ambulance chasing lawyers were acting for the good of humanity.

But sadly, we are bound by laws that make us tell the truth. Unfortunately, those future lawmakers think they are somehow above the morals the advertising community is not only legally bound to, but in some cases, despite our somewhat jaded opinions, companies that actually do follow a corporate moral standard. I know, I have worked with many of them.

Not so for political advertising. The exact polar opposite. I would love for someone to tell me what standards they follow. We don’t hear about what they have done or will do for us (pretty much a standard Advertising 101 thing), we hear that the opponent is just an appalling, deplorable person that is morally bankrupt. We have been trained to sort through mostly fabricated non-facts about who is really the worst candidate, and we choose the lesser of the two evils.

Case in point, the Aqua Buddha ad. Can anyone crawl any lower than Mr. Conway? I think not. This is the best example of someone doing anything they can do to get elected. No morals. Twisted truths. Blind, misled ambitions. Check it out:

If I lived in Kentucky, I would be disgusted that this guy was even on the ballot. But he may go down in history for one of the worst political ads of all time. Now there is a real accomplishment!

Unfortunately, if we want to even attempt to do our own research, we have to sift through various news sources to try and find nuggets of truth. And that just gets us to some of the facts. Doesn’t tell us anything about the core information we need to know – like how is this particular person going to help lead us to a better future. After all, isn’t that what we really want to know? To help you a bit, you can see the ad here and start a fact-checking mission, if you so desire. But you will probably become quickly disgusted as you poke around. Also my best friend swears by Aqua Velva, it cools things, I think! Not sure it is for me.

http://factcheck.org/2010/10/conway-lying-about-aqua-buddha/