Rick Santorum just released an incredibly weird campaign ad, complete with empty playgrounds, spinning clocks, and ghostly daguerreotypes. But beyond dystopia, there’s something else that’s deeply off-putting about the video: a rapid jump cut between the faces of President Obama and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the video below, watch the flashing television screen at 39 seconds in.
The spot’s trying to make the point that the president’s foreign policy somehow aids and abets a nuclear Iran. And that’s only one of the many threats we’ll face two years from now, if he’s reelected. “Welcome to Obamaville,” intones the commercial’s final title card. “More than a town, but a cautionary tale.”
The production values and color palette in the ad are certainly eye-catching. But the bevy of rapid-fire jump cuts? A little confusing. Here’s a partial list of some of the ad’s weirdest flashing images, just in case you missed them:
- Flying birds
- Peeling paint
- A spinning merry go round
- An abandoned sneaker
- Shushing lips
- A bowl of oranges
- Snuffed-out candles
- Marching businessmen, all wearing white gloves
- A shadowy weeping willow
- A confused man in SUV
- A shattered piggy bank
- Meat coming out of a meat grinder (???)
- Waves in reverse
- Those shushing lips again
- A baby
Obamaville seems like a pretty odd place. Santorumville, on the other hand, will have none of the above. Except babies.
