Republican's Betamax Media Strategy---lol

[AlCzervik]

Republicans' Betamax Media Strategy
By Michael D. Shear
It's a given that the Republicans are struggling to keep up with the fundraising prowess of Sen. Barack Obama.

So why would a unit of the RNC decide that it's cost effective to mail this reporter copies of its 30-second ads on physical video tapes?

Every week, the ads come, inserted into grey-colored cases and nicely labeled and stuffed into a large white envelope that is mailed to my office at The Post in Washington, D.C.

The ads, which are freely available on YouTube, are most likely aimed at television stations, which might have reason to air a broadcast-quality version.

But this reporter writes for a print and online newspaper, which has no need of that kind of tape.

Nonetheless, today I was curious to compare how the studio-quality ads might compare to their Internet cousins.

When I opened the cases, I discovered that was not to be.

The ads are recorded on Betamax tapes.

Betamax is the video recording technology that lost the videotape format wars of the 1970s to VHS, more than a decade before the advent of DVDs.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/20/republicans_betamax_media_stra.html

[BzaDem]

1. Wow. n/t

[Happyhippychick]

2. I thought the "Betamax" reference was an analogy, not an actuality!

[AlCzervik]

4. i know, i did too until i read the article. Nice right, nothing represents McCain more

than Betamax.

[Happyhippychick]

10. McBetamax

:rofl:

[aasleka]

3. HA HA!!

[Schema Thing]

5. lol. more like Beta-SP which may very well still be used for broadcast

Though I'm gobsmacked if the industry hasn't changed to a DVD format for distribution.


In any case, they aren't sending out the old "Beta" that lost the format wars to VHS.

[Lubernaut]

6. What???

So I guess Betty White wasn't joking about the carrier pigeons?

[ddeclue]

7. Do you mean 3/4 Beta commercial?

Of course this is still used but is obsolete for HDTV.

It seems silly for them to do this.

[Elidor]

8. Somewhere, at McCain campaign headquarters

Someone has an incredible collection of 8-track cassettes. I'm talkin' Frampton Comes Alive, here, baby.

[backscatter712]

9. Aren't varieties of Betamax still used in professional recording and broadcasting?

IIRC, Betamax has quite a few technical advantages leading to higher video quality (at least before the advent of DVD, Blu-Ray and HDTV...)

In any case, just about any TV station will have Betamax equipment all over the place.

This equipment is professional-grade, completely different from the stuff sold to consumers.

[AlCzervik]

11. i think judging by the article they might be old betamax tapes.