Visual Analysis on Obama's Presidential Campaign Video

Presidential Campaign videos need to be both productive in their argument and visually appealing to the audience.  Barack Obama presented these qualities in a variety of his videos, the most engaging and well-organized presentation was the video called “The Top 5 Reasons Mitt Romney won’t release more tax returns.”  The various types of video clips from the campaign video were the first visual element that captured my attention.  The video was short and concise, but they were full of color, which appealed to the human interest.  The text was full of simplicity, which gave the reader a focal point and valid arguments to consider.

It provided five reasons of its claim that Mitt Romney will not release more tax reasons.  The first reason was that Romney pays a lower tax than the middle class.  It showed a clip from the ABC News, a woman elaborated on the issue.  She said “a lot more middle class have to pay a lot more incoming tax then him.”  Romney responded, “ I have to pay 15%.”  The second reason was that Romney has millions of dollars in offshore accounts.  This information was presented by another clip from the ABC News.  They claimed that Romney held a secret company in Bermuda.  He had twelve offshore tax haven funds in the Cayman Islands.  The third reason was that Romney used loopholes to pay less in taxes.  A reporter from the ABC News said, “If Romney will try to avoid a 15% tax, what else will he try to avoid, that is a pretty low tax rate for him.”  The fourth reason was that under Paul Ryan, Romney would pay only 1% in taxes.  There would be a 4.3 trillion dollar cut for the wealthy.  The final reason stated was that Romney thinks coming clean will hurt him in the election.  The video presented coverage of a CNN interview with Mitt Romney.  The interviewer asked Romney why the people of North Carolina could not see last year’s tax return.  Romney responded, “cause I want to make sure I beat president Obama.” 

These reasons reflect ethos, pathos, and logos.  These accusations of Romney are from creditable sources: ABC News and CNN.  These 5 reasons provided a significant amount of emotional appeal to the people and enough evidence to validate the argument against Mitt Romney.  At the end of the video, it stated, “What else is he hiding, only Mitt Romney knows.”  Although the video was short, the graphic designs and the pictures of the video provided significant powerful meanings, which made the audience critically re-consider whether Romney is truthful in his endeavors.  Most importantly will he be trustworthy if he became the President of the United States.