Andrew Romano says Hillary Clinton's N.C. Ask Me ad is not interactive.
In a post on his Stumper blog, the Newsweek reporter writes that the bid to solicit questions from North Carolinians for use in upcoming ads is not as open as it seems.
Instead, it's about creating the superficial impression of solicitation—and hoping that it lends her bid a welcoming aura of Web 2.0 openness—while screening the submitted questions for toothless queries ("What's your plan for the economy?") that allow her to "respond" with carefully scripted talking points through the old-school, one-way medium of television advertising.
He writes that if Clinton really wanted to have a "conservation" with voters, she would submit to a live, unmediated Web chat.
On the other hand, he writes that Barack Obama's attempt to register high-schoolers to vote by offering to play basketball with them is not any more interactive, but it's end goal is voter registration, not a packaged media event.
"while the former First Lady awkwardly attempts to appeal to the latest generation of voters, Obama actually drives them to the polls," he writes.
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