It is one way of getting voters’ attention: a new web ad released by Obama supporters features Hollywood star Samuel L Jackson, with a rather unorthodox appeal to get out and campaign.
Let’s just be clear. This is not an official video from the Barack Obama campaign. But the Jewish Council for Research and Education, the liberal super PAC which produced it, hope it will galvanise activists to get out and organise for the president’s re-election effort.
We’ve posted the cleaned-up version above. But the ad, lasting three-and-a-half minutes, is based on the highly popular pastiche of a childrens’ book, Go the F*** to Sleep, and a video version by Jackson which went viral last year.
The book’s author, Adam Mansbach, wrote the script for the pro-Obama video, following a young girl as she goes through her house, reminding various members of her family why they should be helping the Obama campaign.
At every turn, up pops Jackson, with a rather direct message to her snoozing relatives: “Hell no, it can’t wait. Your lives will be affected. Romney are Ryan will gut Medicare if they’re elected. Ask the fact checkers, those two are fact duckers. Say hell no, mother…” well, you get the picture.
Many might be shocked by the language, but Mansbach told Yahoo that he wasn’t worried: “There’s always a backlash. To everything. And a backlash to the backlash.”
There’s been plenty written about the “enthusiasm gap” and the steady dwindling away of all the passion and excitement that surrounded Obama’s insurgent 2008 campaign.
Now, there’s a political ad you can swear by. Now that’s something completely different.
Felicity Spector writes about US politics for Channel 4 News