• February 11, 2012

We miss you 'Downtown' Julie Brown!For many moons, MTV was the channel where you could watch Downtown Julie Brown in her fingerless gloves talking about music, and then the Genesis video with the Claymation people would come on, and you could dance around your living room wearing your jelly bracelets and baggy neon shorts. Sadly, those days are over now and the only thing on MTV is a series of progressively more depressing/humiliating reality shows featuring drunk idiots who have sex with each other in the shower. But now there will be political ads, too, on this channel that never allowed political ads before, and the first one just aired! It is shockingly bad.

“Both Ways Barack” just doesn’t have the same ring as, say, “Hanoi Jane” or “Tricky Dick.” Plus, telling MTV watchers that Barack Obama is always “straddling” things will not make him any less popular.

Let Freedom Ring: Both Ways Barack” [YouTube]
Barack Obama Attacked In First National Political Ad Ever To Air On MTV [MTV News]

{ 44 comments }

ManchuCandidate July 24, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Reality killed the Video Star…

“you could dance around your living room wearing your jelly bracelets and baggy neon shorts”

BTW, do you happen to have photos, Sara?

Advocatus_Diaboli July 24, 2008 at 2:51 pm

At the risk of stating the obvious, is McCain now admitting he’s a “flip-flopper” and being so is somehow better?

Buffy and Hildegard July 24, 2008 at 2:53 pm

He can “hold two positions at the same time” and “wants to have it both ways”? Sick bastards. Also, is it me or is this thing painfully dated? Even the narrator sounds like the guy who used to do the recap at the top of continued episodes of Soap or Too Close for Comfort. (Oops — just dated the hell out of myself.)

shortsshortsshorts July 24, 2008 at 2:53 pm

This will be followed by an ad for “coin slot cleanser.”

SuperRounder July 24, 2008 at 2:54 pm

The fact that this may be airing during “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” makes me warm all over.

SayItWithWookies July 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm

So McCrone just wrote off the bi-curious vote?

WagTehGod July 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm

People still watch MTV?

BadNewsJack July 24, 2008 at 2:58 pm

I wonder how this will affect the douchebag vote.

LucyHoneychrrch July 24, 2008 at 2:58 pm

The narrator sounds like the same narrator from my fifth-grade filmstrip on the life of the amoeba.

CrunchyKnee July 24, 2008 at 3:00 pm

[re=43365]Buffy and Hildegard[/re]: “dating yourself” I thought that was the M.O. of most Paultards?

shortsshortsshorts July 24, 2008 at 3:02 pm

So Barry is into the 69?
I think this video should be 86′d.
And Walnuts is 72.

NUMBERS!!!!!!!1!

Toonces July 24, 2008 at 3:05 pm

And all twenty or so MTV viewers are going to be swayed by that shitty commercial?

BigLar July 24, 2008 at 3:06 pm

[re=43365]Buffy and Hildegard[/re]: Not that your avatar or name would have dated you…..

MoodProcessor July 24, 2008 at 3:07 pm

MTV has lost all respectability with this ad.

shortsshortsshorts July 24, 2008 at 3:07 pm

[re=43385]Toonces[/re]: Best to keep in mind that he’s got the under 18 vote pinned for this…

WALNUTS isn’t out of touch AT ALLLLLL….

Kos July 24, 2008 at 3:08 pm

So it is the land of confusion?

polymath July 24, 2008 at 3:09 pm

According to F. Scott Fitzgerald:

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability
to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time,
and still retain the ability to function.”

4everjung July 24, 2008 at 3:09 pm

That video no good. The song was boring, no Snoop Dogg cameo and no girl on girl action. MTV’s standards are definitely slipping.

NebraskashireGentry July 24, 2008 at 3:12 pm

[re=43385]Toonces[/re]: the majority of those twenty viewers are the “stars” of “The Hills”.

they’ve already decided to vote for McCain.

MrAgro July 24, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Baracking the Vote.

i hate myself.

Lazy Media July 24, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Here’s their next ad. No charge, fellas.

Are you tired of presidential candidates who want to have it both ways?

:: shot of irritated, big-haired woman shaking her head at her console TV.

Tired of the same old politics? Tired of flip-floppers? Wish there was something different?

:: Woman looks up at narrator curiously.

Well, then you need to try MAC-CANE!

:Woman smiles joyously.

Mac-Cane, the space-age, patented solution to all your governing needs! Mac-Cane is revolutionary, but time- and torture-tested. Endorsed by leading experts! Washable, nontoxic and economical. Mac-Cane!

*McCain is not sold in stores. Side effects may include drowsiness, irritability, and sudden, unexpected brushfire wars. Not available in California, Massachusetts or the District of Columbia.

::Woman: Thanks, Mac-Cane. Now, my troubles will soon be over!

Larry McAwful July 24, 2008 at 3:18 pm

This sounds like something that idiot VJ Kennedy might make. But there’s plenty of stupid out there besides Kennedy’s. The group that made that ad, some weird outfit called “Let Freedom Ring,” calls the Girl Scout of America a “radical organization.” So take them with a grain of salt. Or a thin mint.

SuperRounder July 24, 2008 at 3:19 pm

“Both Ways Barack” makes a promise Hopey could never deliver on. Sorry boys.

itgetter July 24, 2008 at 3:25 pm

They’ve played this commercial on MSNBC as well, but it’s far more suggestive on MTV.

NoWireHangers July 24, 2008 at 3:28 pm

I’d sooo have a threesome with 2 Baracks.

Sean O July 24, 2008 at 3:30 pm

From our friends at Fox News, their current front page:

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/3955/fauxxq8.jpg

At least the speech in front of hundreds of thousands is above the Alien story.

Tawmn July 24, 2008 at 3:39 pm

JTFC, who is running that campaign anyway?

larz July 24, 2008 at 3:41 pm

So the “M” now stands for “Moron”?

Tawmn July 24, 2008 at 3:41 pm

[re=43435]Sean O[/re]:

PUPPET SHOW

SPINAL TAP

AxmxZ July 24, 2008 at 3:52 pm

[re=43410]SuperRounder[/re]: This is why Edwards drinks and impregnates stray females.

Lascauxcaveman July 24, 2008 at 3:55 pm

If it was VH1, they could run this ad before that classic Joni Mitchell “Both Sides Now” video.

That is, if VH1 isn’t all ‘reality’ programming these days. Been a long time since I got cable.

TheMac July 24, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Are the youngins’ really going to do anything more than snicker at this ad. I mean, seriously…

problemwithcaring July 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm

[re=43372]WagTehGod[/re]: Diabetic shut-ins.

Maus July 24, 2008 at 4:24 pm

[re=43495]TheMac[/re]: The reality tv crowd is absolutely stupid, trashy, and low-classed enough to still be a swing vote this election.

irisheyes July 24, 2008 at 4:42 pm

OMG I know that voice: I live in the Philly area and we have furniture clearinghouse store called “The Dump”. I swear, I can hear that guy saying, “This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday only, leave your checkbooks at home ’cause we can’t take your money. Hundreds of handmade Indian rugs with no payments until November of 2009. To the Dump, to the Dump, to the Dump, Dump, Dump!” True stuff.

Redhead July 24, 2008 at 4:55 pm

Well, that IS the network with the lowest standards (other than, of course, Fox News, where “Fair and Balanced” manages to mean “I just thought up some random crap, let’s assume it’s true and call it news”).

thecitydesk July 24, 2008 at 5:03 pm

I’m pretty sure that one of the fonts used in there is from “Remote Control.”

So, I guess they’re trying to appeal to MTV viewers of the late 80s or so.

regisgoat July 24, 2008 at 6:06 pm

I’m so glad they’re using warm, crumbly, trustworthy middle-aged voices on MTV. Good for them. Can you not see these McCain people going “William Holden, that’s what we need here.”
I mean, they did not have the temporary brains to use some conservative 20 year old for a narrator, one of those voices who puts a question mark at the end of every sentence? Like, Obama? He’s worse than a flip-flopper? Y’know?

schvitzatura July 24, 2008 at 11:07 pm

Wubba wubba wubba, resquiat in pace…

DC or bust July 24, 2008 at 11:14 pm

I think the voice they picked is funny and actually kind of charming, H’s warm and knows
the script is enough to tell the story without having to be one of those ridiculous over-the-top
sinister “movie trailer” voices. Because the guy is friendly, I actually listen to it!
They knew what they were doing. It breaks through BECAUSE it’s like listening to your favorite wise Uncle Frank who has seen it all before and knows a politician when he sees and hear one. People want advice from someone who’s been around the block – not from some snot-nosed kid who doesn’t have enough life experiences to recognize when he’s being sold a bag of dried oregano!

GunsAndBitters July 25, 2008 at 12:07 am

I’m not sure what holding two positions at the same time would even look like, but why wouldn’t you want a man who could do that?

SwanSwanH July 25, 2008 at 1:43 am

Hey Marty Quinn: “Big time” is a post-Genesis Gabriel song/video.

teddytoad July 25, 2008 at 2:39 pm

My God, I’d love Both-Ways Barack.

moviechick July 26, 2008 at 2:51 am

MTV? Sorry McCain, you guys are barely cool enough for Lifetime.

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