Friday, February 15, 2013

Marco Rubio’s Water Dive - Body Language as Storytelling


When Marco Rubio made his famous furtive dive for water, mid-speech during in the State of the Union rebuttal, he ignited more comment than the speech itself.

To Republicans, this was just a guy in need of a glass of water.

To everyone else, this was a stunning moment of body language telling a story. It is not that he needed water – that’s human enough. Or that he had to go mid-sentence to grab a gulp. 

It was the furtive way he did it.

It looked as if he thought that somehow, millions of people watching him wouldn’t notice if he left midsentence to dive for the water.
 
So was he inexperienced before the camera or was this him telling you that he believed he could hide his true nature in plain site?

At the very least, politicians are supposed to know how to hide their real dealings. What happens if a politician thinks he can somehow turn invisible?

His Democratic rivals are probably thinking, “Imagine what does when no one is looking.”

Or are we reading too much into this body drama?

Imagine if this were an funding pitch instead of a State of the Union rebuttal. 

Would that have turned off investors?

If he had an incredibly compelling pitch it might not have mattered….. anything less would have turned off investors.

So what his rebuttal about, anyway?

1 comment:

Harry said...

I don't love the guy. Certainly not in love with the Republican Party anymore. But, Jeeze, can't we give Rubio a break? Yeah, he is new at this and yeah, some idiot didn't think a nano-second in advance to say Gee, network audience? Let's make sure he starts with some warm tea and have a glass of water in fingertip reach. I'm more embarassed about breaking it off on Rubio. To your other point, can't the Republican Party hire some decent speech writers? Maybe even two and pick the best speech? He's delivering the party line for God's sakes. I given him points for making it through his first "pitch" (if I had done better in my pitch, you might have had a different blog about Pixable and me after the sale - and remembered I was with Polaroid not those evil people at Kodak who stole Polaroid patents!!

By the way, it's worth mentioning that the REAL Polaroid is back and it is worth a trip to the Impossible Project Store at 425 Broadway to see what real story-telling can happen when you can capture an image, a moment, and pass around what you see and share on the spot with people you love. Yeah, I love digital, but I love what Polaroid brought to the human experience even more. I'm glad I was part of it (certainly far happier than if I had to deliver Marco Rubio's message with or without water!! Take care, Alan - hope to see you again soon - it's been too long.