Gossip Girl's Serena Vanderwoodsen Wants to Pick You Up

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In a new pro-Obama commercial from MoveOn.org which plays out like a drug PSA, Gossip Girl Upper East Sider Serena Vanderwoodsen feels so strongly about Obama she says, "if you're ever out somewhere and considering about voting McCain, just call me. I'll pick you up. No questions asked."

While it centers on the not so correct assumption all McCain supporters are old and all Obama supporters are young, it does do an effective job spoofing a genre that has become ingrained in the minds of the younger generation, many of whom would love nothing more than to have Serena not ask any questions while picking them up.

by Steve Hall    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Political, Video



Hayden Panettiere: Voting for McCain Will Probably Kill Us All

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Hayden Panettiere, the tortured chick on Heroes who can never die, joins an assembly line of celebrities hoping to affect your vote.

"There are three things think I all citizens should do: smoke cigarettes, vote for John McCain, and don't wear a seatbelt," she says with vigor, tossing in a few wild "FUCKs" for shock value.

You get the gist. Thank Funny or Die, creators of this and that high-larious Paris Hilton for President video -- another effort that makes Obama look incidentally good by making McCain look old and out of touch.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Online, Political



Celebs, Scribbles, Gap Try Stimulating Youth Vote

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What better way to get self-conscious Millennials to the ballot than with a bunch of celebs being gratuitously cool, slightly ironic and occasionally almost (but not quite!) deep?

Look, look, it's Bill Maher in a blazer, prattling about elitists. It ends with "Vote for BBQ" -- except BBQ is written in a Mad Libs sorta way, so you know the "vote for" is open to whatever motivation, however bizarre or irrelevant, you've got.

Because hey, that's democracy.

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Campaign Ads Get Ugly as Nov. 4 Draws Near

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Following their Tuesday debate, both Obama and McCain's campaigns have released ads riffing off something the other person said. Well, that's not completely true. Both ads appear to revolve entirely around Obama, actually.

See McCain call Obama not presidential. See Obama accuse McCain of wanting to tax businesses for health care coverage.

The usual down-to-the-wire campaign crap, but I prefer how Obama's positioned himself as the calm guy who elucidates muddy slogans. McCain, as always, pulls the fear card.

Thirsty for more? See more McCain and Obama ads.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 9-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Political, Television



'He Wants to Overturn Roe vs. Wade.' MAVERICK!

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"We just keep saying 'Maverick, Maverick, Maverick' until that's all they hear!" snaps a fictional McCain campaign strategist. "It's not that hard." Because why write a jingle when you've got a word with the force of a heavy blunt instrument -- a word voters will remember long after all the other propaganda's melted together?

Dubbed "A Fly on the Wall," this :33 bit of masterpiece theatre was allegedly funded by Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein in the flesh, then uploaded onto YouTube from their own computers. Well, maybe not the latter.

Not the first "maverick" bitchslap we've seen in recent days. I'm just glad they didn't use children.

More where that came from, and good stuff too, though all this blatant Obama-loving has begun alienating some potential voters.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 7-08    
Topic: Agencies, Opinion, Political, Video



Ask.com: Dolla Make You Holla!, Political A-Listers, Blogging sans Byline, Gyro's Self-Aggrandizing Promotional Oeuvre

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- A handful of rich-ass celebrities use reverse psychology to cajole MySpace users into voting. What, does Jennifer Aniston not do it for you? Maybe Leonardo DiCaprio's poverty-ridden excuse for a blog will.

- The wife of David Warthen, founder of Ask.com, is facing tax evasion charges on money she made while working as a hooker to pay for law school.

- Three thought-provoking reasons not to blog anonymously if you're gonna blog at all.

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'Sarah Palin's Glasses are a Maverick'

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The Swift Kids for Truth, a group of weebies that can't form complete sentences without lisping adorably, take the piss out of Sarah Palin in a video called "Maverick." The description's about as infantile as the content: "The kids are in awe of that lady who looks like their Mommy when she's mad."

Palin's status as "maverick," the munchkins argue with subtle irony, doesn't go much deeper than the frameless glasses on her nose.

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by Angela Natividad    Oct- 6-08    
Topic: Bad, Online, Political, Video



Gossip Girl (OK, Kristen Bell) Urges People to Vote

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Kristen Bell, along with Mark Cuban, Olivia Munn, John Picard, Minka Kelly, Bill Maher, Matt White, Norman Lear, Perez Hilton and others are part of GAP's Vote For campaign. In the PSAs, the celebrities urge people to vote for those who can't, not to stay silent because an individual vote might not matter, to vote green whether or not you are red or blue, to vote for cleaner energy, to spport the troops and other bipartisan messages no one can really disagree with.

It's a nice effort. It's subtle. It's well crafted. And, thankfully, it's miles away from the usual, overtly leftist/rightist approach we see in so many other political PSAs.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 3-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity, Good, Political, Video



Life without Healthcare is Like Going Commando

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Here's a comparison that's never been made before: lack of health insurance is like walking around with your bare ass showing.

May explain why down-and-out celebrities go pantyless so often. Could they be crying for help? "I'm uninsured, please pity me."

By the campaign for Jim Slattery of Kansas, who's running for US Senate.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 3-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Political, Television



Because Politics Can Get Dirty, So Can Las Vegas

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OK. Having recently been in Las Vegas, this new VEGAS.com campaign caught my eye and made me laugh knowingly at its wit and complete lack of attempting to make the city appear to be anything other than what it truly is: Disney for grownups.

Latching on to the Presidential election, the press release asks, "Tired of all the 2008 presidential election hype? The nastiness and innuendo? The half-truths and naked lies?" And answers, "We're not either. We're good with naked. And in Las Vegas, our 'polls' tend to have half-dressed women hanging from them." Not sugar coated at all and that's to be appreciated.

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by Steve Hall    Sep-29-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Political