Today’s edition of National Public Radio’s weekly On the Media show featured a segment on recycled advertising slogans, which closed by spoofing the Republican presidential candidates–but declining to spoof President Barack Obama.
The focus of the story was the effort by MOM Brands to market Malt-O-Meal products using Pepsi’s old slogan, “The Choice of a New Generation,” whose copyright expired in 2006.
The hosts, deciding that none of the Republican candidates had been able “to hold the public’s attention,” then decided to try recycling famous advertising slogans for each GOP contender.
For example, Host Bob Garfield decided that Mitt Romney could use Fiat’s slogan: “Hand built by robots.” It went downhill from there, and the segment ended with music from “Yakety Sax,” the theme of comedian Benny Hill.
The hosts failed to spoof Obama, though he has certainly failed “to hold the public’s attention” and is suffering record-low approval ratings. Obama has enjoyed unusual immunity from comedians and satirists.
After the show’s credits were read, the hosts suggested they might offer advertising advice to Obama “soon enough.”
But after almost four years–if not now, when?