Obama's Infomercial Focuses on Families' Stories

Sen. Barack Obama half-hour infomerical tonight will be his closing argument to the "everyman" as he spends 30 minutes speaking to the public about his campaign, and his vision for the future.

Jim Rutenberg writes about tonight's presentation in The New York Times:

The trailer is heavy in strings, flags, presidential imagery and some Americana filmed by Davis Guggenheim, whose father was the campaign documentarian of Robert F. Kennedy. As the screen flashes scenes of suburban lawns, a freight train and Mr. Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters, Mr. Obama says: “We’ve seen over the last eight years how decisions by a president can have a profound effect on the course of history and on American lives; much that’s wrong with our country goes back even farther than that.”

Then, while standing before a stately desk and an American flag, Mr. Obama, in a suit, says: “We’ve been talking about the same problems for decades and nothing is ever done to solve them. For the past 20 months, I’ve traveled the length of this country, and Michelle and I have met so many Americans who are looking for real and lasting change that makes a difference in their lives.”

Jim Margolis, Mr. Obama’s senior advertising strategist, told Jim Rutenberg of the Times that the program would then go on to feature “the stories of four different Americans, or American families, and kind of what they’re confronting.” It will highlight “the challenges people are facing and what we should do in terms of solutions.” Rutenberg reports that Margolis said Obama would also share the story of his mother, “who struggled through her bout with breast cancer and the difficulty she had with her insurance company, to help viewers understand why his health care reform program is what it is.”

It will also have a live component, featuring Obama at a rally in Florida. The infomercial has been under production for weeks in the Virginia office of Mark Putnam, whose firm, Murphy-Putnam, is part of the Obama advertising team.

The $3 million media buy is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern, and will be seen on NBC, CBS and Fox, along with a number of smaller cable networks. ABC said it decided not to run the infomerical because of the problem of filling the second half-hour of the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period -- and not for political reasons.