The ad in question is actually the 7 minute-long “Obama Iraq Documentary”. What’s the supposed subliminal message? See if you can figure it out before going here.

Any guesses? ABC News notes that the letters “al qD” show up amongst other letters for a split-second on the screen. If you actually watch the video, you’ll note that the letters are actually come together to form the title of ad.

What’s ABC’s theory about the letters appearing together for a split-second as part of a title entrance?

Some caveats: “al qD” is meaningless by itself. The “l” is actually the capital “I” in “Iraq,” though in the typeface used in the video, it looks like a lowercase “L.” Other letters — at either end of the title — are simultaneously on the screen. And many editing programs do allow randomized letter placement.

But still. . . . For a brief moment, Obama’s face is framed by letters that the brain may want to play with and spell something that does make sense. If you type “al qD” into Google, you get this response: “Did you mean: al qaeda.”

Are they kidding? 99.9999% of the people who see the still-frame won’t even know what the heck the so-called “subliminal message” is until you point it out. They think it’s designed to associate Obama with Al Qaeda? Paranoid much?

Still, in this era of hyper-analysis — and in the very week that a non-subtle New Yorker cover was blasted as beyond the bounds of satire — should something like this have slipped by Team McCain?

Should a transititon that features a set of incomprehensible, random letters have slipped by Team McCain? Grow up.

Update: Oh my God, I just figured out the real subliminal message! See the color surrounding the letters? Well, it’s the same color as fire, right? And what’s supposedly in hell? Fire. And who supposedly burns in hell? Bad sinners. So the subliminal message must be that Barack Obama is a bad sinner who you can’t trust! Gotcha, Team McShame!