August 6th 2008

Paris Challenges “The Oldest Celebrity In The World”

“I

‘m Paris Hilton” says the well-recognized celebrity, chihuahua in tow, “and I approve this message because I think it’s totally hot.”

So ends the celeb’s response to the ad from the campaign of the “old, wrinkled white guy,” which I’m having trouble embedding but you can see here. It’s not particularly clever, but it says an awful lot about how much campaigning has changed with 2.3 million hits on the ad since it was posted 16 hours ago. (The McCain ad has “just” 1.6 million hits on the spot I found it although it’s posted all over the Web.)

The ad has stopped Obama’s momentum like a brick wall, putting to waste the Herculean effort of BO’s globetrotting photo op, all at minimal cost to the McCain campaign. The Hilton spoof is tougher on McCain than Obama, calling him “the oldest celebrity in the world … like super-old,” so we have to ask if it will have a negative impact on his campaign.

Probably not. Besides, there’s a much more essential question that’s unanswered in all this: Where’s Britney?

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July 31st 2008

E! Lectures McCain On Political Advertising

B

y now you’ve heard about, read about and no doubt seen this McCain ad:

What you may have missed in the whole “Obama as a tacky celebrity” to-and-fro is this critique of the ad from that fount of political commentary, E! Online:

Oh, John McCain.

First, you side with Heidi Montag in The Hills catfight, and now this? In your new campaign ad, you suggest Barack Obama is a celebrity more popular than Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

That’s hardly fair. Those two are too busy these days with other concerns to worry about being at the top of the boldfaced heap.

If you want to get tough on Obama, why not compare him with some really hot celebs. Take Christian Bale—have you seen the box-office figures for The Dark Knight? Huge! Or Miley Cyrus? She’s massive. And for that matter: Why not compare Obama to enduring stars like Will Smith, Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks?

You could even pit him against some of your supporters: Jon Voight, Erik Estrada or Spencer Pratt? That’d be interesting.

But Paris? Come on, there’s gotta be a better comparison. You’d almost think you were trying to belittle him or something.

Exactly.

You won’t find political commentary that probing at Politico, Bub. And BTW, to wrap up celeb reaction to this ad – which is absolutely great for feeding its viral reach – there’s this:

Hilton has blasted the MCCain camp for using her image without asking for permission.
A spokesperson for the star says, “Miss Hilton was not asked, nor did she give permission for the use of her likeness in the ad and has no further comment.”

Her proud parents donated $4,600 to McCain. No word on how much they gave to BO.

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With Obama winning the presidency by seven percent, we can't blame the media. Their laudatory coverage and refusal to extensively probe into Obama's background and [lack of] experience was at best responsible for five percent of his vote, the pundits tell us. Here is a compilation of over 100 significant instances of pro-Obama/anti-McCain bias during the 2008 campaign.

For all 'Media Bias 2008' – Click Here