As if it isn't infuriating enough that our superior city, which really ought to secede already, has to be lumped in with the rest of benighted "Amurca," now politicians across the land are using New York as a cudgel with which to beat their opponents. The Times finds that more than $100 million has been spent on more than 100 campaign ads featuring Wall Street as a major theme. (Here's a video sample.) And the Times fears that Wall Street's "taint is also spreading to the city itself!" What ever will we do to escape this dreadful taint?!
"I don’t think citizens suddenly see an ad that features Wall Street and say, ‘I hate New York,' " says one political science professor. "But the advertising is meant to reinforce prior perceptions, and the more times you see an image, and hear a message, that message sinks in." And the message, though varying from ad to ad, is that NYC is nothing but "corporate types swilling cocktails or puffing cigars, and smug-looking bankers roaming the streets of Manhattan." Political scientist Glenn Richardson thinks that after the election, "New York will take a beating, because people are being buffeted with negative associations."
But hey, maybe if we just hold our noses and embrace Wall Street's taint, America will give us our beating and then let us go? For our part, we've already got the cocktail-swilling smug attitude down, but we are going to need a box of cigars. Oh, and money.
