ADVERTISEMENT

#TBT: Jim Webb's Video Team

omg when will it end
November 20, 2014

Jim Webb has, it seems, decided that the Democratic Party is aching for a middle aged white guy to be their standard bearer in 2016. Good for him! I wish him all the best.

But if he truly wants to enter the Oval Office, he's got to hire a better video team. Just look at this ... thing.

For the first 1:50, it's just Webb talking to the camera in front of a green screen, going on and on about what the country needs. And, look, the stuff he's saying isn't terribly controversial! We need pols who can work together, not tear each other apart. America deserves better. Et cetera. When he's not just talking into the camera—spouting platitudes and reciting his resume—there are still photos in the frame.

It is the most insanely boring thing I've ever seen. I defy you to find more than a handful of voters who will bother to watch the whole pitch.

Compare Webb's presentation to, say, Tim Pawlenty's, a far less formidable candidate who nevertheless understands how to sell his ideas to the nation:

The soundtrack could have been ripped from a Hans Zimmer score. The quick cuts, the archival footage that's actually in motion rather than static, the lens flares, the sweeping imagery of Earth's curvature taken from space: This is what captivates audiences in 2014! It's epic in scope and sweep, a truly visionary production Voters are children of the auteur of awesome. And they demand to be entertained, not preached to.

That being said, Webb's video is so old fashioned, one can't help but feel it's intentional. There's the video quality, of course, which calls to mind cable access programming from the late 1980s or early 1990s. But look also at the aspect ratio he's using: It's 4:3, as opposed to the modern 16:9, the standard size for today's HDTVs. Is this a dog whistle to elderly white voters, the sort who look back on the 1980s (when Webb worked for Ronald Reagan) with fondness? Is his boxy framing a sort of subtle, almost subconscious, cue to those who wish for a better time?

Okay, probably not. But still: It's worth considering! Jim Webb has shocked the world before. Will he do so again in 2016?