Will Someone Please Stick a Fork in Will.i.am.?

Enough already, Hollywood. We get it. You want to throw whatever weight you have behind Obama. But shouldn’t Will.i.am have quit while he was ahead here? His latest support video just screams “one too many!” and comes off as less about the promotion of the words, ideals, and inspiration of the candidate himself and more about “celebrities” who felt excluded the first time around getting another crack at seeming politically aware. I mean, it’s nice to see Daniel Meade from Ugly Betty and all. Makes me wonder what the return to the set’ll be like when he and America Ferrera inevitably face off over their divergent allegiances. And aren’t Regina King’s arms killer (even though I sooo wanna do something about her hair)? And look! Lots of Spanish being spoken! (Oh, word? George Lopez is an Obama supporter? Good lookin’ out, I guess.)

But I didn’t need to hear Jessica Alba pat herself on the back for having the foresight to look out for her unborn child on the future president tip. She’s getting way too much press for that pregnancy already. And Kerry Washington is cute, but if she didn’t make the deadline for the first song, I would’ve been good with just catching the comments she makes here somewhere else on the campaign trail. And aren’t we all getting a little bit tired of seeing Zoe Kravitz randomly cropping up everywhere now that she’s eighteen? Like, just because.

I guess the point is: shut it, Will.i.am.

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.
  • Have you ever read Jackandjillpolitics.blogspot.com? They’re monomaniacal in their Obama devotion, which makes me wonder how effective they can actually be; anyone who’s reading that blog is already convinced, so why are they yelling?

    This spot reminds me of that. Who cares what Ryan Philippe has to say about anything? Or Jessica Alba? The people who will dig this are already among the ranks of the converted. It may well fire them up (to use the Obama campaign’s chant), but everyone else is just gonna become more numb to this than they already are.

    If the emotional pitch hasn’t worked on the undecideds yet, it’s not gonna.

  • rootlesscosmo

    I have a hunch this commercial was made for the Texas primary and won’t be aired again after next Tuesday, though YouTube gives campaign ads eternal life and even brings them back from the grave (see the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon ads linked from Edge of the American West.) What’s interesting, I think, is that the campaign seems to have decided to ignore the risk of making racist white Democratic voters uncomfortable, presumably on the assumption they weren’t going to vote for Obama even if he made three speeches attacking Sister Souljah.

  • rootless: this video wasn’t made by the Obama campaign, but by the evil Will.i.am. It probably does fit the definition of an advertisement, but that label seems ill-fitting, for some reason.

  • I DEFINITELY care about what Ryan Phillipe has to say. He’s so cute!!!!!!1

  • rootlesscosmo

    My mistake–I thought it was made to air on Texas TV as a paid ad. I’m way behind the curve on these unofficial media phenomena, old enough to remember when bottom-up intervention in election campaigns took the form of chalked slogans on boxcars (“In Your Guts You Know He’s Nuts” as a commentary on Barry Goldwater’s “In Your Heart You Know He’s Right,” in 1964.)

  • Big Word

    I’m voting for whatever Democrat gets the nomination. I like Obama but I dislike the almost purely emotional response he elicits. If any of these celebs would show some substance on an issue or two I might allow myself to be swept off my feet. So far it’s just cheesy hollywood bs. THIS makes me cringe.

  • It was good to see George Lopez representing though

  • Corrin

    This one does over-do it. The last one was good enough to last through the primaries.
    I do think will.i.am had the Latino population of Texas in mind as target audience. In the last video the Spanish was minimal (“Si, se puede!”) but if there had been more I doubt we would have seen this. It’s in part a response to the Latino vote in Cali. But it’s not as effective as ‘Yes We Can.’ The chanting as the hook just doesn’t work.
    And yes, tired of seeing Zoe everywhere. She can’t act, can’t sing, is not generally recognized. Why must I suffer because of Lenny’s name?

  • You are funny.

    Co-sign on George Lopez and Zoe.

  • ladyboss09

    you know i only watched this long enough to see Regina King’s arms right?

  • misc1982

    *does pushups and tricep dips*

    SO jealous of Regina right now.

    Damn.

  • LH

    Big Word: When it comes down to it, what successful candidate doesn’t elicit an emotional response? And do you feel the same way about the response Clinton has elicited?

  • Kerry Washington. Yes INDEED.

  • slb

    g.d.: i love how she says he’s not going to be the president of a major corporation or the top ten percent and how he’ll speak for “us” because “we” put him there. dream on, honey.

  • Big Word

    LH: I here very little from Obama supporters about how sound his policies are. As a matter of fact, when I first started to post on this blog, I found a lot of cynicism about his campaign based on just that. They’ve all been swept up in this brother’s ability to “spit game” as some young cats say nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see the man get elected, but this dort of hero worshipping cult that seems to be building around him is a bit much for me.

  • Tasha

    i ain’t watchin it
    ya’ll can’t make me
    *emphatically does NOT click*

  • Lady Reebel

    lol@ the post title.. ur so sarcastic and funny…

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