Will Ferrell Revives Bush Send-Up to Promote Political Group in Short Web Film
- by Kate Kaye , July 30, 2004
Dubbed "Straight Talk," the Dubya lampoon was created to help promote America Coming Together (ACT), a left-wing issue advocacy group that aims to register voters and elect democrats to office in the November election. The mini movie features Ferrell as the press visiting "White House West" in Crawford, Texas, the real Bush's hometown. It runs a brief 4.5 minutes long and was created to spur volunteers to register with ACT and donate funds to the organization, according to Thomas Gensemer, director of online strategy for ACT.
Unlike former SNL alumnus, Dennis Miller and Janeane Garofalo, both of whom have taken a more serious approach to political punditry of late, Ferrell figured taking a humorous tactic through an entertainment vehicle like a film short "was the best way he could do something to help," Gensemer explained. He said Ferrell was involved in some events in Los Angeles and "expressed an interest in doing something" to assist ACT in its endeavors, so he devoted a weekend to shooting the Bush parody. According to Gensemer, ACT is mentioned in the film in which Dubya's droll doppelganger suggests that viewers, "don't vote and watch Fox News."
ACT is hoping Ferrell mentions the film in upcoming media appearances. The boisterous star was featured recently on NBC's "Last Call" with Carson Daly and "The Ellen Degeneres Show" which is syndicated on NBC and Oxygen Network stations. Ferrell has been promoting the new DreamWorks Pictures comedy, "Anchorman," in which he stars as a '70s-era newscaster with an inflated ego and the hair to match.
In case Ferrell doesn't come through on the talk show plugs, the Web film will be promoted through ads on entertainment Web sites including RollingStone.com, TheOnion.com and Comedy Central, according to Gensemer. The lighthearted fare available on such sites, and the typical frame of mind of their audiences creates an environment that's conducive to a viral campaign, said Gensemer. "There's more likelihood that they'll spread it on from a site like TheOnion; plus, news sites are over-saturated," with political advertisements, he added.
Although political ads are often rotated heavily on newspaper Web sites and news sections of Web sites, political advertisers have taken to placing ads on atypical sites in an effort to gain attention from specific demographic groups, and people whose tastes stray from current events content. The John Kerry for President campaign has run ads on TheOnion.com, and liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org has run ads on RollingStone.com. The Bush-Cheney '04 campaign has placed ads on cooking and food site Epicurious.com as well as NASCAR enthusiast site, ThatsRacin.com, according to Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance data.
"Some of our partners will be promoting [Straight Talk] for us, too," noted Gensemer. Michael Moore will push the Web flick through his site, as will TrueMajority, a liberal activist group founded by Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream man, Ben Cohen.
If the recent success of "This Land," a frolicking Web animation created by JibJab Media featuring George Bush and John Kerry exchanging zingers to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," people looking for a bit of online divergence appreciate political humor in short film form. Deemed possibly "the biggest short film ever on the Internet" by Megan O'Neill, director of acquisitions at AtomFilms, the film's exclusive distributor, "This Land" had been viewed over one million times by the day following its launch on the AtomFilms site.
"Straight Talk" will be available for viewing at high and low connection speeds via Windows Media Player and Apple's QuickTime player; however, ACT is expecting people to play virtual hooky and watch it while at work, where most have broadband Internet connections.
