Ads of the Weird : Politics

Vote: A celebrity told you to

Allison Linn — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:00:00 GMT

We here at Ads of the Weird have generally tried to stay away from political ads during this seemingly endless election cycle, preferring instead to leave the good, the bad and the ugly to our friends in the Politics section.

But this being Ads of the Weird, Election edition, we’re making an exception. No, we don’t plan to jump into the minefield of speculating as to whose ad is more effective/negative/misleading. Instead, we’re going to focus on the one thing we hope everyone can agree on: The right to vote.

This year, as in years past, there are a plethora of public service announcements aimed at getting people to the voting booth. And this year, as in years past, they run the gamut from pretty good to pretty embarrassing.

declareyourself.com

The freakiest "get out the vote" ad award goes to this spot from Mobilize the Vote 2008, which seems to posit that if young people don’t vote they will end their days dressed like 19th-century peasants and living in some sort of abandoned warehouse. We do think voting is extremely important, but the cause and effect here strikes us as a tad overdramatic.

On the other hand, this "Rock the Vote" commercial, which plays out like a mini-police drama starring Adrian Grenier, keeps our attention and gets the point across: Voting is a personal responsibility, and it does make a difference.

It’s almost impossible these days to find a voting PSA that doesn’t rely on at least one high-profile celebrity urging Americans to vote, but famous faces don’t necessarily equal good commercials.

Declare Yourself’s "don’t vote by which we mean do vote" ad gets the award for the best misuse of a star-studded cast. A huge number of talented celebrities, ranging from Halle Berry to Dustin Hoffman, are packed into the five minute video, but the lame attempt to use reverse psychology ends up feeling forced, repetitive and a bit condescending. Even Sarah Silverman’s potty humor can’t save it. (Warning: This video contains some adult language.)

This more self-deprecating follow-up, featuring Steven Spielberg trying unsuccessfully to get celebrities to say "don’t vote," works much better.

Sometimes simple is best, though. While many people have accused us of being cynical, we were actually kind of touched by this Rock the Vote commercial featuring Christina Aguilera singing "America the Beautiful" to her infant. It’s effective and to the point.

It’s a measure of our times that Aguilera is using her vocal talents and her mommyhood to get out the vote. It seems like it was such as simpler, more innocent time when another pop icon, Madonna, was using a red bikini, and not much else in the talent department, to do the same.

Al Gore frees us from bad advertising

Allison Linn — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

For years, many people regarded environmentalists as earnest and well-intentioned, but more likely to plant a few trees than force Americans to make substantial changes.

That all changed with former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which mixed tough talk with just enough hope to leave people emboldened rather than defeated.

The most recent "we can solve it" ads, sponsored by Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, take the same tack, with the same results. Watching them, we couldn’t help but feel a little manipulated, a little scared and a little hopeful. But, they got us thinking every time.

wecansolveit.org

The ads mix an urgent musical score with big words that are meant to evoke big thoughts, such as "Free us from our addiction to oil" and "Save our economy." Meanwhile, the imagery flows from the bad guys (carbon-spewing energy producers) to the good guys (clean energy) and then the rest of us (tight shots of slightly worried-looking regular people).

The entire effect is both dramatic and arresting, and it catches our eye every time it appears on television.

The Alliance for Climate Protection also does a good job, in a simple way, of tying help for the environment to other issues many people care about, including the weak economy, high gas prices and concerns about our children’s future.

The effect is bold without being too overbearing. It’s also much more effective than the group's previous ads, which showed how would-be rivals had found common ground over saving the environment -- on a couch in the middle of nowhere. Instead of making us feel hopeful, those ads just made us wonder how many carbon emissions were wasted dragging a couch, a film crew and a bunch of overly cheerful opposites into nature.

Click here to watch the ad.

Snickers doesn't make everyone snicker

Allison Linn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:24:00 GMT

The makers of Snickers are pulling an ad after it failed to get laughs among gay rights activists who called it homophobic, according to an Associated Press report.

In the commercial, a man is speed-walking down the street when 1980s icon Mr. T comes barreling around the corner, firing candy bars at him and calling him a "disgrace to the man race."

The ad, which aired in the United Kingdom, ends with the tagline "get some nuts."

snickers.com

The AP says Mars Inc., which makes the candy bars, meant the ad to be funny, not offensive, and that's why they decided to pull it. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation said the ad used stereotypes of gay men.

Readers may recall that this is actually the second time Mars has pulled a Snickers ad because of accusations that it was homophobic. In 2007, a Super Bowl ad featuring two men accidentally kissing over a Snickers bar was yanked after similar complaints.

Click here to hear what MSNBC cable has to say about the latest controversy, or click here to watch the ad.

Update: Some readers noticed that a previous link to the ad had stopped working. We've posted an updated version.