Well, when talking to people in focus groups about the ad, first most people didn't recognize that at almost an imperceptible level there was the hand appearing to crush the head of the candidate. Now we don't know what that does to audiences. But it's interesting that it's there. Secondly, there's a black mark on the paper. But there are some people in some focus groups who see that as a black hand holding a black gun.
Different people bring different meanings to different symbols.
We don't all respond to the same message in the same way. Illegitimate fears that are not about the explicit content of the ad, but are about something else. Or were those just production accidents that elicited that unintended response in some members of the audience. He tells the story as if it was all much more casual. You know, he used the cameraman, to be the person in it because he was wearing the right kind of plaid shirt and had the wedding ring and so forth and so on.