Now is the time for…whatever this is

By Dan Brooks in Campaign Advertisements 10 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM

Props to Pete Jones for the link to this video, which as near as I can tell is not fake. I admit I was difficult to convince at first. It seems literally incredible that one campaign could make so many bizarre choices in 56 seconds, not the least of which is pointing a video camera at Mark Block. He looks like a guy who runs the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, possibly because he used to run the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Block is Herman Cain’s campaign manager, so it would almost make sense to put him in this video, if he did not so closely resemble the dude your mom dated right after she heard your dad was dating someone. Block’s questionable charisma is completely erased at the :40 mark, though, when he takes a long, defiant drag from his cigarette. And…music!

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Rick Perry for President of exploding Superamerica

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media 8 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EL5Atp_vF0

First of all “Superamerica” is totally in the OS X spellcheck dictionary, which makes me think it’s existed all along. Wouldn’t you rather live there than in the peeling, dilapidated husk of America depicted in this Rick Perry advertisement? The Perry campaign released this spot—titled “Rick Perry: Proven Leadership”—on Tuesday, and it joins a long line of Republican ads that portray the United States as, well, Detroit. Even the parking meters have garbage bags over them in Wrecked Now America, a place where everyone voted for Barack Obama just before vanishing. The only human being that appears in the first 30 seconds of this video is the President, plus a couple of TV anchors shown on pictures of TVs. The rest of the country is empty, except for that sound which has become so commonplace now that we hardly notice it: air raid sirens.

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Department of Aiigh!: Christine O’Donnell is you

By Dan Brooks in Tea Party 8 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJyPsmEask&feature=player_embedded

Let’s talk about first impressions. When I’m suddenly confronted with the image of a woman looming in a featureless null-space, the most reassuring thing she can say to me is not, “I’m not a witch.” Behold Christine O’Donnell, starting from scratch. She’s nothing you’ve heard—a statement immediately punctuated by the appearance of the words “Christine O’Donnell” next to her. Clearly, we are rebuilding Candidate O’Donnell from the ground up. She’s done some experimenting, she’s shopped around, and she’s finally settled on an identity that she thinks she likes: yours.

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