Why the National Organization for Marriage ad failed

A Little Tale from History

Hundreds of years ago a group of humans reached a distant island filled with trees and animals and birds of many different kinds. The island and the seas around it were rich with food, and the forest was filled with trees ideal for making boats with which to fish, or spears with which to hunt; the island was an ideal new home.

To honour their ancestors, who had guided them to the island, they carved a statue from the stone that formed the island and using tree trunks to haul it to the coast from where it could overlook the entire island. Down the generations they did this many times, both to honour and petition their ancestors.

Over time they found they were carving more statues to petition their ancestors than to honour them - their paradise-like island was running out of food as the forest that had covered it disappeared. They no longer had wood for boats with which to fish, and the island's animals were dying out. The shorter of food they became, the more statues they carved in their increasingly desperate petitions for divine intervention, and the more trees they cut down to haul the statues to places where they could watch over the island - until there were no trees left.

It seems to me that NOM is becoming increasingly like the Rapanui of Easter Island once were - they are becoming more and more frantic in their efforts to please God and earn his beneficence, and in so doing they are acting against their own goals by showing people what they truly are - fanatics - just as the Rapanui were acting against their own interests by the progressive elimination of Easter Island's forest in their efforts to please their ancestors.

Santayana said "those who forget history are condemned to repeat it"; and NOM has clearly forgotten it, for they are definitely repeating it.

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Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

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by: tavdy79 @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 18:38:00 PM CDT

Uh-oh

I hope there's some way we can ensure that WE are not part of the cannibalism to come. Sign Maggie or Rush up, please. Or some of those zombies from the ad.

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by: Pollyanna @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 18:44:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

If you want to stretch the island metaphor a little further...

we are on one of the thousands of small islands off the coast of Finland - perhaps not the most hospitable of environments, however post-glacial rebound will one day join them to mainland Europe. Depending on how long we have before the next ice-age (and we seem set on avoiding it!) the gulf of Bothnia could in time become a huge inland sea. NOM, on the other hand, is stuck on an isolated island in the middle of a vast ocean, and in time that island will be worn down by wind and rain and vanish beneath the waves.

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Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

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by: tavdy79 @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 06:49:55 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I am concerned

That if they don't get their way they will increase their use of physical tactics to get their hate out instead of verbal tactics. Meaning it won't be a fringe thing but much more mainstream idea to put us in our place, so to speak.

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by: FFL @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 18:48:50 PM CDT

Even more dangerous than big, furry blobs of doom with sharp claws...

Armed GLBTQ's don't get bashed.  :D

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by: CubPaws2008 @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 20:47:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Long-term...

that can easily become a self-defeating option for the fundies: the more they look like the Nazis, the less believable their message becomes. In the short-term it may be viciously unpleasant for us, but in the long term it is the violence of a cornered animal that already knows it will soon die.

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Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

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by: tavdy79 @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 06:58:00 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

the difference between ignorant, stupid and idiot...

when i was teaching i would get upset with kids calling each other ignorant. i would have to deal with it every year in each new class.

i would explain to them that ignorant simply means you don't know, and it's something that is okay because you can always find out by reading, asking, studying, etc.

stupid, on the other hand, means you know something might be wrong but you do it anyway.

they would always get it.

a fourth grade class that i had one year asked the next logical question: then what is an idiot? i put the task to them to come up with a suitable description.

what they came up with is "an idiot is someone who is too stupid to realize that they are ignorant."

it's kind of difficult to argue with the logic of a group of nine-year olds that can come up with an insight like this.

if you connect this description to that of a fanatic - a person who has forgotten her purpose but redoubles her efforts - and we have a very dangerous situation. just like the NOM video that has been in the spotlight.  

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by: jmichaeli @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 19:01:51 PM CDT

Until they can articulate

something more compelling than "if same-sex marriage is permitted then heterosexuals won't be able to feel extra special anymore" as the big terror in the issue, "be afraid, be very afraid" isn't going to resonate as a message no matter how theatrically they wrap it for presentation.

There may be straight folks who feel extra special because they're straight (in the "there but for the grace of God or the roll of the DNA die" vein) but I suspect they felt that before they got married.  

And while being married may make them feel hell-of special, one hopes the joy of winning the returned commitment and eternal companionship of their heart's desire makes them feel so, not some sense that their heterosexual privilege only becomes fully vested when they get hitched.

For those few for whom their message works, one must pity a marriage so devoid of substance that "and it proves to the world I'm not gay" is the one facet of the diamond they'd be irrepairably harmed to lose.  And for those few, if that impending A-bomb storm cloud in the ad's background makes their marriages explode... it's probably going to be the biggest favor anyone ever did them.

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by: Rae @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 19:03:40 PM CDT

How do you measure the ad's failure?

Has it been pulled?

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by: David Ehrenstein @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 19:23:15 PM CDT

The Internet Is Fast

Years from now, it will probably be looked at in the same vein of an Ed Wood movie- at college dorm parties complete with drinking games.

Years? I think it's already reached that point.

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by: kathygnome @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 19:38:03 PM CDT

Times and attitudes have changed

NOM is stuck in the past.

They tried to use "modern" techniques to get their point across.  They failed to realize that their talking points have been tried before and failed the test.

Will this video be posted on failblog?

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by: bkmn @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 19:46:01 PM CDT

Stuck in the past?

  How about just plain stuck.  They have no positive outlook. If Marriage Equality is banned through out the world, would divorce rates drop?  Nope, Marriage Equality is not the problem, it is people who have always been able to get married, Straight people who have fucked up marriage, mostly with divorce.

 If you truly want to protect marriage, ban divorce.  This message is getting out through all areas of media.  They can't stop it as it has become a base line of many comedians.

 

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 20:04:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not a million dollar ad

It was a million dollar ad complete with technical effects.

There is absolutely no way that ad cost a million dollars to make. It is a bare studio with a green screen. No sets, no props and the actors probably brought their on wardrobe. The cheesy technical effects can be done on any home computer, as too the editing.

The only real expenses would have been the one day studio rental,  a couple of lighting technicians, a camera operator and a sound technician. The actors are definitely not SAG material and were probably paid below union scale. I would guess that production costs were around $20k.

You may be confusing the number with the $1.5M they have budgeted over the next two years for broadcast airtime.

I think the low production values, particularly the "talent" they hired played a major part of the fail. However, even if it was a slicker production using the same material, it still would have faced ridicule for its faux martyrdom panic.

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by: Stephanie @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 20:38:19 PM CDT

Perhaps the rest

went to executive producer salaries?

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by: Rae @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 21:02:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Like David asks -- how do we know it has failed?

I'm wondering what the measure is that shows this -- if it hasn't gone on the air yet, and we don't have population reaction to it, I don't see how we can know it has failed.

Perhaps I have too little faith in the American populace, but many people seem susceptible to what seem to us like ridiculous arguments. That is why Prop 8 passed.

We can do better than just to laugh:  we can, and should, push back.

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by: ElsieElsie @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 21:36:10 PM CDT

I feel the ad failed for a number of reasons

I feel the ad failed because of a number of reasons.

While it has not aired as of yet, there seems to be a huge backlash to it already.

On youtube, it has has rated very poorly. Also, NOM seem to be play defense on a number of fronts, most specifically getting youtube to yank the audition videos.

From what I've seen on the blogs, there have been no positive responses. Conservative religious blogs are slow to defend the ad - and that says a lot because we all know that you only get one chance to make a first impression and its all about being the first to define the argument.

In the face of our victories in Iowa and Vermont, the ad comes across as desperate and too intense.  

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by: Alvin McEwen @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 21:47:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

One more thing

One more thing - the fact that NOM inferred anecdotes and used actors rather than actual folks involved in said anecdotes hurt them tremendously.

Questions have come up asking why couldn't they have gotten the actual people. Did these incidents really take place?

That made it easier for us to refute the anecdotes.  There was no one the audience could bond with as an actual person hurt by same sex marriage.  

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by: Alvin McEwen @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 21:51:38 PM CDT

Not only that, MSNBC was all over it.

  Also during the Vermont hearings, the House members slammed these idiots.  They have had this campaign in the works for quite awhile, this wasn't something dreamed up over night.  Even with the crappy acting and tech support, this took time to set up.  

 They got side kicked by the Iowa Supreme Court ruling and the Vermont veto override.  

 I know they said the ad was to run in NY, NJ, NH and ME.  I don't know when the ads are scheduled to run, but it takes time to set aside time slots for advertising as well.  They claimed this was a $1.5 million campaign.  We just have to see if they continue with this ad or will they pull it.  If they pull it, that is costly as well.  If they run with it, who is it going to reach?  It will not be a surprise ad like the new Budweiser commercials.

 IMHO, they got beaten up big time on this one.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 00:25:44 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Procrastination

 They have had this campaign in the works for quite awhile, this wasn't something dreamed up over night.

Could've fooled me. It looks like they spent too much time playing "Left Behind: The Video Game" and thought at last minute "Oh no! I need to throw a commercial together!"

watashi no yomeiri wa doko desu ka

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by: belfrieboi @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 01:54:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hilarious cartoon

Check out Slap Upside the Head's take on the the NOM ad. His cartoon characters show more emotion than the live actors did.

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by: Stephanie @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 23:26:26 PM CDT

Now that I've finished laughing . . .

I read your articles, and pray for these people.  They are so lost it makes me sad.  I actually went and looked at their ad, oh dear, I was laughing so hard.  Yet I was also very sad that in the 21st century there are still people like this walking around.  I think modern medicine should invest more in treating mental illness, then these poor folks could find help, and mayhap live a healthier life.

Thanks Pam for keeping an eye on these people.  

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by: greeneyedggirl @ Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 23:28:31 PM CDT

Anyone see this good debunking video?

Don't know if anyone else has posted this (I think I've read most comments but may have missed some, sorry.) I think this guy does a good job explaining the lies behind NOM's examples in just under six minutes. Not very flashy but does the job:

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by: DubNotDubya @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 00:19:16 AM CDT

Very good video,

  Thank you for posting it.  This is one thing we have to do, put as many eyes on these videos as possible.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 00:34:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Two thoughts:

1. That was incredible, and I'm spreading it round all the forums I use regularly.

2. Please tell me that guy is single!

____________________________________
Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

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by: tavdy79 @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 07:52:42 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

A bit too wordy... but a good try.

...and I doubt he's single!

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 10:54:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

NOM paid BIG money to skewer themselves

...and their add was eminently skewerable. SadlyNo's "fixed" version underscores this:

I think the liberal response to the add, i.e. ridicule, was absolutely on target and important for influencing how the add has been perceived. There have been so many occasions when our side has not effectively countered anti-same sex marriage propaganda. I think Prop. 8 won because our side was not mobilized against their onslaught of misinformation. I'm glad we are winning this particular bout, but their pockets are deep. They'll be back with something better.

Kudo's for DubNotDubya's video post...

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by: JonathanU @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 08:03:45 AM CDT

I keep wondering

why someone has not re-dubbed ad edited it with the opening song of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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by: MauraHennessey @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 08:44:36 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

that's my favorite so far

The zombie masks are great.

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by: one jewish dyke @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 15:47:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Why it Failed is Obvious

Let me count the ways:

--totally tacky effects that looked done in a rush

--weirdly positioned figures who seemed unsympathetic

--odd postures. Who stands like that when speaking?

--bad camera angles that emphasized all of the above

--flat affect.  They were supposed to evoke fear, but they merely sounded uncomfortable and badly rehearsed.

The production values were pathetic and cheap and the ad felt rushed, poorly-thought out and laughable.    

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 08:11:15 AM CDT

For a measure of failure.

As I said in another comment Google gave over 37,000,000 hits for nation of marriage.  Anyone care to try an advanced search for hits relating to the add, and positively or negatively.  It wouldn't be conclusive, but informative.

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by: Charles @ Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 10:49:04 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

they put their talking points online

http://www.nationformarriage.o... .

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by: chiefscribe @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 17:07:13 PM CDT

awful talking points

they certainly say the word bigotry a lot.

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by: Alvin McEwen @ Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 18:22:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]