NurseWeek

Bush accused of subliminal messaging

By Keith W. Murrow
Health24News
September 13, 2000


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Washington (H24N). The Republican National Committee (RNC) and its candidate for president, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, are being accused of sending out subliminal messages in a television commercial that compares Bush’s proposed prescription drug benefit to that of Democratic opponent Vice President Al Gore.

The alleged subliminal message, first noticed by the "Fox News Channel," involves an advertisement paid for by the RNC, and aired on Bush’s behalf. Both the producer of the commercial and the RNC are accused of inserting the word "rats" on the screen during a section of the commercial discussing Gore’s prescription drug plan and how bureaucrats will control senior citizens’ access to drugs.

RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson defended the commercial’s producer, Alex Castellanos, after reviewing the ad and talking with Castellanos.

"I have now viewed the advertisement myself in slow motion, frame-by-frame, and I have spoken at length with Alex Castellanos, who produced the ad for us, and it is clear that there was no attempt to deliberately manipulate anyone here," Nicholson said in a statement.

He went on to explain that the ad uses a technique called a "visual drumbeat" in an attempt to capture the viewer’s attention.

"Over the course of six frames, the phrase ‘bureaucrats decide’ bounces around the screen, alternating in each frame between large type and small," Nicholson explained. "In three of those frames, the entire phrase can be read clearly in slow motion; in three of those frames, fragments of the phrase in large type appear on the screen."

Castellanos’ production company, New Media Services, has produced ads for five presidential campaigns and numerous Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, according to the New Media Web site.

In a lighthearted manner, the Bush campaign dismissed the charges as false.

"It sounds like happy hour at the Gore campaign lasted a little too long," Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a release. "If you play the ad backward, you hear the words, ‘Paul is dead.’"

The Gore campaign has declined to issue an official response to the ad or the accusation of subliminal images appearing within the commercial.

The ad, which highlights Bush’s plans for adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, has run in television markets for the past two weeks.