{"id":427,"date":"2008-10-28T00:05:11","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/?p=427"},"modified":"2008-10-27T19:53:59","modified_gmt":"2008-10-28T02:53:59","slug":"when-%e2%80%9cputin-happens%e2%80%9d-what-will-you-do-oto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/?p=427","title":{"rendered":"When \u201cPutin Happens\u201d: What Will You Do, OTO?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Steve Finefrock<\/span><\/strong> – [scriptwriter]<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember<\/strong><\/span> those American Express travelers cheque ads years ago? A crisis was presented for a family away from home, their wallet stolen, the crisis overwhelming their vacation future, when stepped up Karl Malden. Like a fedora-donning yoda, Malden in his trench-coat \u2013 a la his recent TV detective role in \u201cStreets of San Francisco\u201d [with young co-star, Michael Douglas] \u2013 offered the audience a wise question, as he stared into the camera, coming into the viewers\u2019 living rooms with an intimacy only a beloved TV character can generate:<\/p>\n

What would YOU do?<\/p>\n

The solution? American Express travelers\u2019 cheques, of course! The on-screen logo coda insisted, \u201cDon\u2019t leave home without it\u201d \u2013 and the next commercial racked up for viewing.\u00a0 This piece of commercial thirty-second entertainment was a mainstay of primetime TV for years, subjecting Malden to many a skit parodying his ad by \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d with Johnny Carson in face putty to replicate Malden\u2019s schnozz.<\/p>\n

If the RNC were half as clever as it needs to be, some variation of this ad \u2013 or drawing on a more recent, salient version \u2013 would be generated in a commercial to ring true, asking Obama The One [OTO] the crucial question:<\/p>\n

WHEN PUTIN HAPPENS, WHAT WILL YOU DO?<\/p>\n

Or when \u201cAhmadinejad Happens\u201d \u2013 WHAT WILL YOU DO?
\nOr when \u201cChavez Happens\u201d \u2013 WHAT WILL YOU DO?<\/p>\n

And more saliently, if OTO be our Oval Team Leader, what WILL WE<\/span><\/em> DO?<\/p>\n

The shame is there are oodles and boodles of talents of a conservative stripe to create such stunningly appealing and memorable TV ads, brimming with conservative energy, who\u2019d be thrilled to put together such artistic expression of the conservative message. The RNC could match ad for ad all that OTO’s loyal legions are putting on TV \u2013 but they seem unable to realize such talent is there, or knowing of its availability, to effectively exploit it.<\/p>\n

Some were employed for the convention, but little evidence since that the conservative creatives of Hollywood \u2013 the Pacific Palisades pals on the left coast \u2013 are finding an alliance with the Potomac pals in the capitol.<\/p>\n

If those pals linked minds, that mind-meld could swamp OTO and his hopeful lefty legions. So far, RNC ads are pretty puny, as are most \u2013 though not all \u2013 of McCain\u2019s efforts at communicating. It\u2019s 44 years since DNC bashing of Goldwater orbited around the famous Daisy Ad \u2013 one stunning piece of work that was merely the centerpiece of a whole body of ad work that worked over the political body of the GOP nominee, Barry Goldwater.<\/p>\n

Who was the senator from Arizona!\u00a0 And who was painted mercilessly as a racist and nutcase. By the media masters of the left at the DNC. In the ensuing 44 years, it\u2019s been assumed the \u2018talent\u2019 for such creative product of persuasion was exclusively on the left.<\/p>\n

WRONG!<\/p>\n

As this column keeps insisting, and starting to do so successfully, there is enough talent to make a \u201cWhat would you do\u201d commercial \u2013 even a series of them \u2013 to put the dems back on their derrieres.\u00a0 Writers, directors, producers, camera operators, lighting specialists, make up artists, actors, executives \u2013 a full mix of the menu of talent, in Hollywood, with political leanings to the right, just itching to put to work their workday talents, on behalf of conservatism.<\/p>\n

It takes time, and money, and leadership to bring that potential to fruition \u2013 \u201cAn American Carol\u201d has had tepid boxoffice, mostly due to its rush to release in time for electoral influence. But it does show moxie and methodology that is ready to be energized to the next level, for the next time, as the next president either will be OTO the Impaler needing effective \u201cloyal opposition\u201d \u2013 or Mac the Hugger, eager to make-nice and sucky-face with the left in a manner replicating his earlier mavericky methods.<\/p>\n

Either way, now and then, whoever is the Oval Leader, a lot of \u201cWhat Would YOU Do?\u201d ads are needed, with talent and the money to make it happen.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we do need to strive for the remaining week to force the media, and the voters, to ask:<\/p>\n

If Putin Happens, WHAT WOULD OTO DO?<\/em><\/p>\n

What price do we pay for political correctness and fashionability? ExileStreet<\/strong><\/span>
\n
\ncopyright 2008 Steve Finefrock<\/em><\/p>\n

Finefrock is founder of Hollywood Forum, a speaker-bureau and panel-discussion vehicle to “Bring the Potomac to the Palisades” on issues that overlap politics and culture with the Hollywood film-TV influence on such national concerns. His scripts have addressed politics [including a TV series pilot\/bible package about state political combat, called “A State of the Union”], hazardous materials [from twelve years in emergency management, including six years managing FEMA’s Superfund curriculum for hazmat], terrorism, equestrian reincarnation, serial murderer killing journalists in the nation’s capitol, and fantasy about time-wasters. Finefrock is proprietor of PhoneBooth: The Smallest Space in Hollywood…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Steve Finefrock – [scriptwriter] Remember those American Express travelers cheque ads years ago? A crisis was presented for a family away from home, their wallet stolen, the crisis overwhelming their vacation future, when stepped up Karl Malden. Like a fedora-donning yoda, Malden in his trench-coat \u2013 a la his recent TV detective role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exilestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}