TITLE: "Love." LENGTH: 60 seconds AIRING: National cable and Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia and Wisconsin. SCRIPT: Announcer: "It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The 'Summer Of Love.' Half a world away, another kind of love _ of country. "John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured. Offered early release, he said, 'No.' He'd sworn an oath. "Home, he turned to public service. His philosophy: before party, polls and self _ America. A maverick, John McCain tackled campaign reform, military reform, spending reform. He took on presidents, partisans and popular opinion. He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles. "John McCain doesn't always tell us what we 'hope' to hear. Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics, can. "Don't 'hope' for a better life. Vote for one. McCain. McCain: "I'm John McCain and I approved this message." KEY IMAGES: Scenes from the late 1960s _ demonstrations, the Woodstock music festival. Black-and-white footage of a military plane on a mission fades to a still shot of McCain in his flight suit. A photograph of the wreckage of his shot-down plane in North Vietnam gives way to clips of McCain recovering from his wounds in captivity. The ad's tone and imagery then shift to the United States: McCain as a Navy liaison to the Senate with Sens. John Glenn, D-Ohio, Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., and William Cohen, a Maine Republican and best man at McCain's wedding. McCain is shown being greeted by Ronald and Nancy Reagan, standing before a mountain wearing a Navy baseball cap, silhouetted against the sky as he answers a cell phone, speaking in front of an American flag, greeting well-wishers, touring New Orleans and stumping on the campaign trail. The ad ends with McCain in profile superimposed over a clip of a much younger McCain, saluting upon his release from Vietnam. ANALYSIS: With a minute-long ad, McCain's campaign covers much ground: His 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, his time as a senator and a not-so-veiled dismissal of rival Barack Obama's campaign as one of words, not substance. The strong subtext: McCain has sacrificed; Obama has not. The risker subtext: Vote for action, not hope. Continued... |