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By Steven Naifeh (Author), Gregory White Smith (Author)
$21
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Say what you will about Sacha Baron Cohen’s ribald and untoward brand of comedy, but he has at least one thing going for him in his latest big-screen venture, “The Dictator”: good timing. Speaking of which, here’s a glimpse of what Super Bowl ad-watchers will see from Baron Cohen’s camp this Sunday.
Posted on Feb 3, 2012
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The Obama campaign will begin airing its first commercial Thursday, and the first words on screen are “Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama.” The ad responds to charges leveled by Americans for Prosperity, a front group for the conservative Koch brothers.
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Newt Gingrich isn’t giving up his fight for the presidency. The kamikaze candidate has released a new ad attacking Mitt Romney as someone from Massachusetts, the hippie gay rainbow brown people state, or something.
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This commercial from the BBC, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, reminds us in this new year how special—and fragile—our planet is.
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From “Saturday Night Live” comes this … what’s that? This unbelievably bizarre Herman Cain campaign ad is real? The Baltimore Sun calls it “unorthodox,” which is an understatement considering this is from the Republicans’ leading contender for the presidency.
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The biggest threat to WikiLeaks isn’t the house arrest of Julian Assange or the militaries of frustrated world governments—it’s the financial blockade by PayPal, Bank of America, Visa and other institutions that has cut off $15 million in donations (by WikiLeaks’ estimate).
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Given the outsourcing, the massive bailout, the abandoned houses and the rest of the city’s emotional baggage, it was sort of inevitable that Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” ad, featuring Eminem and spanning roughly $12 million worth of airtime, would elicit cheers and jeers from Congress.
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AP / Koji Sasahara
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In the world of advertising, celebrity always equals money, and anything that these luminaries—whether from entertainment, sports or even politics—touch (even by accident) is tantamount to tangible, profitable product placement, right?
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We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but—oh what the hell. In this clip Fox News cuts to commercial the moment Sarah Palin’s name comes up at an Arizona vigil.
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Al-Qaida is to Bill O’Reilly what Nazis are to Glenn Beck. That is to say it’s his favorite smear for things he doesn’t like. In this instance, a heartwarming (warning) commercial for McDonald’s in France (danger) aimed at gays (RED ALERT!).
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Last week Nike launched a controversial new ad featuring Tiger Woods and the voice of his deceased father. The Internet has responded.
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They’re not called the “culture wars” for nothing, but still, the fact that Focus on the Family spent precious seconds of prime Super Bowl advertising airtime (and lots of money) on the abortion debate is a telling reminder that America has some issues, and deeply divisive ones at that.
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Sadly, this ad probably wasn’t banned because it’s lame and not funny, but CBS did Go Daddy a favor keeping this humor fail off the air.
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mancrunch.com
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A commercial for a gay dating website isn’t likely to air during next week’s Super Bowl. The site, ManCrunch.com, submitted an ad that CBS is still “deliberating” on. ManCrunch was told all spots had been sold, but other potential advertisers are being told otherwise.
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winmentalhealth.com
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The number of Americans who are exploring the concept of better living through antidepressant chemistry nearly doubled in the decade from 1996 to 2005, according to a study published in Archives of General Psychiatry—and that was well before the economic meltdown.
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Team Obama has avoided campaigning against Sarah Palin ever since a few botched attempts when she first burst onto the national stage. Since then, the governor’s numbers have nosedived and she now serves as the punch line in a new Obama campaign commercial called “His choice.”
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The actors from arguably the most annoying commercial ever have reprised their roles for a more constructive purpose than selling beer. Now if only the Verizon guy would come out against warrantless wiretapping.
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youtube.com
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In this time of confusion and strife, it’s a good thing there’s FactCheck.org to shine a light through the political fog that surrounds us all. Or something like that. Anyway, the FactCheck folks took a close look at the McCain campaign’s shadowy little commercial number, “Ayers,” and found it to be problematic on several counts.
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collage: Flickr / videocrab / transplanted mountaineer
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Flush with cash, Barack Obama has purchased air time on at least two networks for a half-hour special to air a week before the election. No word yet on how much a half-hour of prime-time sweeps air costs, but it’s certainly more than Ross Perot paid back in ‘92.
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The Obama campaign promised to toughen up in the face of John McCain’s notoriously dishonest attack ads, and has since fired off a salvo of negative spots.
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Here’s the hopeful commercial the McCain campaign recently released to introduce Sarah Palin to voters around the country, featuring a hopeful soundtrack and bittersweet reminders of a more hopeful time in the McCain presidential campaign—as in, five days ago—when Palin was really, really new to McCain too!
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is not thrilled that his song “Running on Empty” was co-opted by the Ohio Republican Party and used as an anthem for a commercial that Browne believed made it seem as though he supported John McCain’s presidential campaign. Au contraire, Ohio GOP.
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In her video response to John McCain’s “celeb” commercial, the heiress unveils her own energy policy and threatens to paint the White House pink. Thanks again, Sen. McCain, for making this campaign about the issues. Or not.
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Do you think that when John McCain helped craft the legislation requiring “I approved this message” at the end of political ads he could have envisioned himself attaching his name and approval to this silliness? Behold, McCain’s attempt to elevate the discourse ... by likening his opponent to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
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AP photo / Stefano Paltera
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Sometime soon, thrill-seekers with the funds and the desire to plunk down $200K to experience four minutes of weightlessness more than 60 miles above the Earth will have the chance, thanks to Virgin CEO and astro-preneur Richard Branson.
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It’s getting ugly out there. With just a day to go before the much anticipated Pennsylvania primary, the Democrats are running a blitz of negative ads, like this one from Hillary Clinton that features a cameo from a certain bearded terrorist.
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Hillary Clinton’s latest ad reprises her 3 a.m. theme, only this time she’s taking calls on the economy. The most interesting thing about this commercial is its target: not Barack Obama, who has just surpassed Clinton in one poll in Pennsylvania, but John McCain. Update: McCain responds.
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A joint probe by the Center for Investigative Reporting and National Public Radio traces the money behind a new anti-McCain ad, revealing an alliance of top Democratic donors who’ve already raised millions to take back the White House.
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Something called the Campaign to Defend America has purchased a reported $1 million worth of air time in Ohio and Pennsylvania to run this ad, which connects John McCain to George W. Bush. Update
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If recent polls are any indication, Hillary Clinton’s “red phone” commercial has had an impact on voters. Perhaps for that reason, her campaign has launched a new attack ad.
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Hillary Clinton has had difficulty keeping pace with Barack Obama’s fundraising, which could explain the launch of a new pro-Clinton 527 group called “American Leadership Project” that already has a commercial it plans to run in Ohio. The group is not subject to the same rules as the campaign and can theoretically raise unlimited amounts of money.
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Um, is it just us, or did Rudy Giuliani’s camp seize upon the strike-induced lull in Hollywood to hire out talent to make what looks and sounds like a Mideast-themed action movie trailer to promote his presidential campaign? “A religion betrayed ... a nuclear power in chaos ... madmen bent on creating it. ... ” Steven Seagal’s people should take notes from this one.
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abcnews.com
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After Hillary Clinton announced she will buy two minutes of air time on every evening newscast in Iowa, Barack Obama wants to go even further with either a two- or five-minute live campaign commercial, to be aired simultaneously on all the networks. The stunt, which “West Wing” viewers will recognize from the show’s last season, has station managers scratching their heads.
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Mike Huckabee tells MSNBC that the prominent floating cross in his Christmas ad was pure coincidence, although he immediately loses credibility points with a series of canned jokes.
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A new Clinton campaign ad has the White House crying foul, and Clinton crying “Tough!” The commercial features the candidate saying that struggling families and troops are “invisible” to the president. Deputy press secretary Dana Perino said the claim is “outrageous” and that “it is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing,” which prompted this retort from Clinton: “Not only have I said it and am saying it, I will keep saying it because I happen to believe it.” Update: video added.
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By The Rev. Madison Shockley — The culture wars have clearly gotten out of hand when the front line is Christmas.
The Rev. Madison Shockley is a minister of the United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, Calif., and a regular commentator on religion, race, politics and popular culture.
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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