Last nights’ was truly an Austin-centric episode of The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart’s at-times awkward interview of Hillary Clinton occurring live via satellite from here.
But in the report at the top of the program, Stewart highlighted some campaign-fodder with a less obvious local connection – Clinton’s infamous “Children” (or “3am”) ad. While the audacity of the feel-good fearmongering clip has collected it press above and beyond its ad-buys, it’s less widely known the ad was made by Austin’s Roy Spence, co-founder of and the S in GSD&M.
While any carbon-based lifeform within eyeshot of a television is capable of forming their own opinion on the clip’s effectiveness, Stewart pointed out the ad was cannibalized from Spence’s own “Red Phone” clip from 1984. And as for the effectiveness? While Stewart used the unsuccessful candidate it was created for – Walter Mondale – as a cruel punchline, The Atlantic‘s Marc Ambinder notes Mondale creamed Hart by over 30 points in Texas.
Somehow, I don’t think history’s due to repeat itself tonight.
Clips galore after the jump.
The Daily Show on the advertisements (long clip, comes towards the end):
“Red Phone”
And in case you’ve been living under a rock …
And here’s Barack’s response …
And, uhh, why not:
For shits and giggles:
What I would give for a “Crank dat” “3am” mash-up right now … Not quite there, but close enough:
This article appears in February 29 • 2008.