Meatballs (advertisement)

Meatballs (also known as Meatball and For Spanish Press 1) was a political commercial aired during the 2000 United States presidential campaign in support of Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. The commercial, which was created by Houston-based agency Love Advertising, depicts a Caucasian man choking on a meatball while attempting to dial 911, but keeling over before the automated menu reaches the option for English.[3][1] The ad highlighted Buchanan’s support for making English the official language of the United States and his opposition to current immigration policies.[4][5]

"Meatballs"
AgencyLove Advertising
ClientPat Buchanan 2000 presidential campaign
LanguageEnglish
Running time30 seconds
Release date(s)October 9, 2000 (2000-10-09)[1]
Directed byDavid Harrison (creative director)[2]
Production
company		VTTV, Houston[3]
CountryUnited States

Upon its release, the ad aired in 22 states, particularly border states like California and Arizona.[1] The commercial drew criticism from several media outlets for its message, which some considered racist and xenophobic. Some critics praised the ad’s humor and execution.[1][6][7] Its accuracy was called into question by multiple fact-checkers.[1][5] The ad has been unfavorably recognized in retrospective lists from the American Prospect and Salon.[8][9]

Background
Pat Buchanan, the Reform Party nominee for President in 2000, made immigration a central issue of his campaign.

In the 2000 United States presidential election, former Republican Pat Buchanan sought, and ultimately received, the nomination of Ross Perot’s Reform Party. Buchanan’s campaign themes included opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, illegal immigration, and abortion rights.[10] Because of the Reform Party’s showing in the 1996 presidential election, with Perot garnering eight percent of the national popular vote, the party qualified for matching federal campaign funds in 2000. Following a court ruling, Buchanan was awarded $12.6 million in such funds.[11] A stated goal of the campaign was to again attain at least five percent of the national popular vote, so that the Reform Party would maintain its eligibility for matching funds in the 2004 election.[12]

For their first television commercial of the general election campaign, funded partly by those matching funds, Buchanan’s campaign hired Love Advertising, an agency based in Houston, Texas.[1][7] Its owner, Brenda Love, reported that her agency had been chosen because Buchanan "wanted a fresh approach, someone who would do something different both in strategies for the media and the creative."[3] Buchanan’s national campaign finance chairman reportedly connected the campaign to Love. The agency’s creative director, David Harrison, oversaw the ad.[2]

The commercial itself was filmed by VTTV. Both Love Advertising and VTTV received criticism from some of their clients and Houston commentators for their involvement in an ad perceived to have "anti-Hispanic overtones."[3]

Synopsis

The 30-second TV spot opens with a middle-aged white man sitting in his kitchen, eating a meal of spaghetti and meatballs while watching the news on TV.[1] A newscaster announces that an executive order "say(s) that English is no longer America’s national language."[1] Upon hearing this, the man begins choking on his meatball. However, upon dialing 911, he has to wait through a recorded menu stating which number to dial for each language, including Spanish, Bengali, Swedish, and Swahili.[1][9] A voice-over asks "Do you ever miss English? Immigration is out of control."[6] The narrator adds that George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, and Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, "are writing off English for good."[1] Before the recorded menu reaches the option for English, the choking man has fallen, "lifeless," to his kitchen floor. At the end of the ad, the viewer sees the man’s dog standing on his stomach, "licking the food off his face."[1]

Analysis

The ad’s "choking" plot has been interpreted as a xenophobic metaphor for the idea that "immigration is going to choke America to death, one way or another."[9] Slate proposed that another moral of the ad might be that "a foreign-food-loving social deviant got what was coming to him."[6] The Houston Press suggested that a subtext of the ad is that real Americans speak English.[3]

Regarding the ad’s message, Buchanan himself argued that "In the long run, one of the great threats to this country is its tendency to dissolve along the lines of race, ethnicity and language."[4] He further alleged that the Democratic and Republican parties were unwilling to substantively discuss the issues of immigration and English, in spite of voters’ interest in the issue, "for fear of violating some kind of political correctness."[13]

Release

On October 9, 2000, the commercial began airing in 22 states, including California and Arizona, using a portion of the federal matching funds which the campaign received.[1][13] The ad was given particular emphasis in California, airing in every media market in the state.[14] CBS News suggested that Buchanan targeted those two states specifically because of their "many residents who have firsthand experience with illegal immigrants and are passionate about closing the borders and/or denying them benefits."[1] Buchanan agreed that he believed the issue would carry relevance for California voters, telling SFGate that "In California I do think the English issue and the immigration issue still resonates [...] It may not be 60 percent, but the issue is still out there."[13]

Although it was produced by a Houston-based advertising agency, and the Buchanan campaign ran radio ads in the Houston area, the commercial was not initially aired in any Texas media markets; it was suggested that the ad’s perceived anti-Hispanic message would alienate voters in the state.[3]

With its first October 9 airing, Meatballs became the first general-election campaign TV ad released by any presidential candidate that year.[7] The ad aired primarily on cable television and during, among other programs, WWF Smackdown.[15]

Reception

Political
Art Torres (above), the California Democratic Party chairman at the time, was among the political figures who accused the ad of "fear mongering."

Upon its release, the commercial drew criticism from some political figures. California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres attacked the ad as "pathetic and should be condemned by all." Torres continued that "English will always be our national language and no amount of fear mongering or clicking of the heels will change that."[7] The deputy vice chair for the National Council of La Raza, Lisa Navarrette, remarked that "There is a reason Pat Buchanan is getting 1% of the vote."[7] In an interview with the The Washington Post, Peter Fenn, a Democratic strategist, singled out Meatballs as his choice for the worst commercial of the 2000 campaign.[16]

Critical

Critical reaction to the ad was generally negative. A review for Slate gave the ad a letter grade of "D," criticizing "its ludicrous premise" and a number of perceived non-sequitirs in the ad, such as the ad’s use of a food — spaghetti — associated with immigrants, and the fact that if the man was choking, then he might not have been able to speak to a 911 operator even if he’d reached the English option in time.[6] A review by Dan Snierson, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the ad a letter grade of "B" for execution and "no comment" for its message. In response to the ad’s claim that "immigration is out of control," Snierson quipped that "Yeah, that’s not the only thing."[17]

A review by Bob Garfield for Ad Age deemed the ad "sort of funny, after a fashion, at least to the people it's intended to amuse," but also denounced the ad’s message as being "inherently jingoistic, intolerant, divisive and [...] racist." Garfield also observed that, whereas "extremists" running for public office often "try to cloak themselves in the mantle of respectability while communicating their corrosive messages in thinly veiled code words," Buchanan’s ad doesn’t.[15]

A profile of Buchanan in the Washington Examiner deemed the ad "hyperbolic" and questioned the political saliency of illegal immigration as a campaign issue, citing a Gallup poll indicating that the issue ranked twelfth in importance to voters.[10]

Accuracy

The ad was also criticized on the basis of charges of inaccuracy. An analysis by John Franzen in the book Winning Elections: Political Campaign Management, Strategy & Tactics noted that neither Bush nor Gore had expressed support for removing English’s status as America’s national language. Franzen concluded that "This ad is very funny, but it is not ethical."[5] Similarly, CBS News deemed the claim that both Gore and Bush "are writing off English for good" to be "a stretch," although noting that both candidates had "oppose(d) mandates making English the official U.S. language."[1]

Aftermath

Effectiveness

The Globe and Mail described the Meatballs ad as "the only time Mr. Buchanan [... ] manage(d) to get any attention," owing to the "considerable offense (which) was taken" to the spot.[18] By the end of the campaign, following the release of Meatballs and a string of other campaign ads, Buchanan was polling at approximately one percent among voters, far behind fellow third-party candidate Ralph Nader.[12][18]

Legacy

In 2001, The American Prospect columnist Dave Denison retrospectively deemed "Meatballs" one of the two "cheapest and sleaziest" political commercials of the 2000 campaign, along with a commercial in that year’s New York senate election questioning Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s sexual orientation. [8]

In 2015, Salon ranked the ad at number eight on its list of the "10 of the most fear-mongering political ads in American history."[9] Writing for that publication, media critic Kali Holloway deemed the commercial "even more ridiculous than you might’ve imagined" and called it "a shrine to fear-mongering and xenophobia if there ever was one."[9]

See also

References
  1. CBSNews.com Staff. "Buchanan serves up a "Meatball"". CBS News. CBS. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  2. Johnson, Dennis W. (2017). Democracy for Hire: A History of American Political Consulting. Oxford University. p. 185. ISBN 978-0190272692. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  3. Fleck, Tim. "Of Love & Hate". Houston Press. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  4. "Elections 2000". Migration News. UC-Davis. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  5. Faucheux, John (2003). Winning Elections: Political Campaign Management, Strategy & Tactics. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 403. ISBN 1590770269. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  6. "Ad Report Card: Use FedEx, Vote Buchanan, or Die". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  7. Teinowitz, Ira. "Buchanan's Broadside: Anti-Immigration Spot". Ad Age. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  8. Denison, Dave. "Political Meatballs". American Prospect. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  9. Holloway, Kali. "10 of the most fear-mongering political ads in American history". Salon. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  10. Rees, Matthew. "Put Away Your Pitchforks". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  11. Franken, Bob; Smith, Matt. "FEC awards Reform Party funds to Buchanan". CNN. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  12. Hamburger, Tom. "Buchanan, in Reform Party Fade-Out, Is Poised to Fall Short Despite U.S. Funds". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  13. Gledhill, Linda. "Buchanan Gets Message Out In Plain English / His TV ad blasts other languages". SFGate. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  14. Bailey, Eric. "Buchanan Immigration Ad Met with Quick Criticism". LA Times. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  15. Garfield, Bob. "Political Ad Review: Buchanan TV spot a sure head turner, and, oh yeah, racist". Ad Age. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  16. Levey, Bob. "Q&A With Bob Levey". Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  17. Snierson, Dan. "Ad Shock". Entertainment Weekly. Meredith. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  18. Koring, Paul. "Third-Party Fortunes Smile on Bush". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
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