The Smell of Fear -
The Smell of Fear - Citizens for a Subservient Minnesota (CSM) is running a new radio commercial (requires Quicktime) to try to foment fear about the Minnesota Personal Protection Act.
Note the emotional buttons being pushed:
- The character reading the spot is, inevitably, a "mother"; "I don't want to walk into a store with my kids...". The appeal is obvious - they're trying to get the soccer moms (or, as we reported last winter, win them back; 9/11 won a lot of "soccer moms" over to the concealed carry side, according to some polls)
- Notice the crude defamation of those who favor concealed carry reform: "...any yahoo with a gun in his parka...". Not "rape victim", ""single parent protecting his/her family", "law-abiding citizen who is absolutely no threat to anyone"...no, just "Yahoo".
- Check out, while you're at it, the social stereotyping in the spot. The protagonist - cute-but-businesslike-sounding mom. The antagonist? A guy in a parka. In this day and age, "parka" is itself an iconic token; it screams declasse'; they're worn by the lower-class, the rural, the extras from Fargo, the "white trash" who live outstate and shop at Wal-Mart. There's a hint of depravity to it, too; the parka is very out of style for the "mainstream" (at least, the suburban, minivan-driving mainstream that this commercial is aiming at) - it was middle-class winter chic in the seventies, so among the spot's audience, it's likely associated with biker bars, homeless shelters, that crowd.
- Beyond that? The "Parka-wearing Yahoo" is, in terms of 21st century urban archetypes, a politically-correct boogeyman; in an era when you can't go on the air with a woman worrying about guns in the hands of "bangers in starter jackets"; the parka-wearing yahoo is an acceptable substitute for the real fear, read "Bigotry" underlying this commercial.
- Like most CSM communications, the commercial lies. It will take more than a simple background check to get a concealed carry permit when the MPPA passes. But even so, note the arrogance inherent in the commercial's subtext; the woman's fear of someone's external "Yahoo"dom is more important than the complete absence of criminal record?
- Listen to the ad; note the complete lack of references to "Minnesota" in the exchange between the "mom" and the "senator's staffer". The spot was cut by a national group - which one, I don't know, but I'll find out - and sent out to local victim-disarmament groups to have the local "tag" (the guy reading the bit at the end) added on in final production. CSM is working with someone nationwide.
I'm thinking, right now, that this commercial is good news, in a backhanded way. The victim-disarmament lobby is getting nervous enough to actually spend money; moreover, they're spending it in
Minnesota, a state that even a few years ago had to have been considered rock-solid safe anti-gun territory.
I haven't had much time to follow the concealed-carry debate this session, with the job hunt and all. But I'll be on this as the session winds down; it's too important an issue to let slide.
UPDATE: I'm told the group is actually called "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota. My bad.
UPDATE AGAIN: An email correspondent writes:
"I hadn't listened to it myself, but I fully expected them to engage in, what sound likes from your report, simple name-calling and fear.
My feel is this: the media and people are beyond name-calling and fear; they won't respond to the advert; and it may just motivate our people to call in support.
Of this, I'm also confident. The anti-gun movement in Minnesota and nationwide is a mile wide and an inch deep; a lot of people are uncomfortable around guns or with firearms rights, but not uncomfortable to bother calling legislators or turning up at hearing after hearing; firearms rights supporters turn out for both in droves. I think that, as far as this is concerned, the ad will backfire.
And that the media are probably not susceptible to this bag of tropes is also encouraging; despite their bias on so many issues, enough of the Twin Cities media has learned to see through CSM's phalanx of strawmen that, from my vantage point, the media hasn't been that much of a handicap to the pro-liberalization side.
I think this advert is a real mistake on CSM's part.
Not that it'll be easy. The Senate is still too tight
for my comfort."
True on both counts.
Again - more to come.
Posted by Mitch at
April 23, 2003 10:00 AM
