Heather Graham’s latest starring role is playing “Public Option” in Obama’s health care epic (uh-oh, time to reconsider your agent). You may remember Graham as Felicity Shagwell from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me… or perhaps Roller Girl in Boogie Nights. Here, she gets physical in “Track Meet,” a new ad produced by leftist group MoveOn.org. The philosophy: if you can’t pass the public option on its’ merits in policy and debate, why not try selling it through sex and cheap laughs?
—
So, what’s a nice Catholic girl from Milwaukee doing in an ad like this? Graham admits, “My friends really wanted Obama to be elected so we all did a spell and then he got elected.” Thanks for sharing. Graham is a long way from that seemingly squeaky upbringing, having joined a coven of witches. But she becomes just the latest conjurer in a string of celebrity activists pushing ObamaCare.
The ad’s narrator is counter-culture hippie and actor Peter Coyote, and the message recalls another recent MoveOn ad starring Will Ferrell that lampooned insurance companies. Ferrell, for his part, has a growing proclivity for turning up in more and more politically loaded advertising. Hardly surprising for a guy who owes his career to playing George W. Bush, but when asked to meet the President snapped, “I don’t want to meet that guy.”
The jury is still out on whether celebrities influence weighty issues like America’s health-care overhaul. Surely, casting witches and clowns in ads won’t help. Are these multi-million dollar campaigns that use comedy and sexual innuendo effective in persuading a skeptical public? If you’re George Soros, apparently so! But then, “Track Meet” is a tortured ad that insults the very youth demographic it tries so hard to persuade. An obvious play to Obama’s core of young followers, it contrasts the titillating, youthful Heather Graham against a pack of older suit-wearing health care big-wigs. But… is Graham supposed to be sexy or silly performing her ridiculous warm ups (or does it really matter)? Austin Powers might say: Oh, bee-have!
Most perplexing, the producers unwittingly put down the intended audience — one straight-laced woman villainously checks her e-mails and text messages… another executive eats a cheeseburger… another parties with champagne… more than a few go ga-ga over Graham — it’s like they were acting exactly like the age group they are targeting!
Until MoveOn grows up and gets serious, the kooky George Soros-financed outfit will be about as threatening as Doctor Evil in a room full of Mini-Me’s.