Classroom Publication

Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Obama infomercial

In the University at Albany Campus center, amongst the ruckus of people chatting downstairs, ping pong, and pool players, a few interested students sat and watched Barack Obama. In this thirty minute “commercial” as 20-year-old Irving Dejohn referred to it, Obama covered all of this issues that are important to his campaign.

While the winning ping-pong player screamed in victory after every point he scored the interested students struggled to hear Obama’s issues. Some issues Obama spoke of included:

• • tax credit for college when students do community service
• • health care with lower costs and higher coverage
• • tax cuts for the middle class instead of the

All of which Anna Lempereur, 20, favored, “ I like the health care plan, how he’s trying to help families with students, and the education plan.”

These interested students watched as Obama used examples of middle class families to emphasize the importance of these issues. Twenty-year-old Anna Lempereur thought that Obama “Picked families in the worst positions possible.” Lempereur also said that she thought that Obama used these “extreme” examples “To make himself look better.”

While he still favors Obama, Dejohn agrees.  Dejohn said that the “commercial” was “Very deliberate and over produced, he [Obama] was pretty much glowing the whole time”

Some may believe that this was Obama’s attempt to get more votes, that “he’s just going to the battle states,” as Iriving would say. Some, like Hirrah Sajjad, 19, disagree. “This didn’t change my mind, I already made my decision.”

Obama's "commercial" airred on CBS, NBC, FOX, BET, Univision, MSNBC and TV One and costed around 4 million dollars. Obama reached over 20 percent of American televisions.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools