Voting. That's what the PSA, a double-entendred riff by well-known Hollywood actresses, is about. And it's what 20 million unmarried women didn't do in 2004, according to Page Gardner, president of the group that produced the ad, Women's Voices. Women Vote....
"So this is how these liberals think that they're going to get single women to vote?" Limbaugh asked. "Sex. Now, I want to ask you, is this clever or is this demeaning? . . . It may work, who knows, but it's still demeaning. It tells me they're not interested in women voting issues." (Washington Post)
God help me, but I agree with Limbaugh. This is pretty sad. Aside from Angie Harmon, who the hell thinks that hearing Angie Harmon wax philosophic about how empowering it was to vote for the first time, will motivate those 20 million women on Election Day?
And these are really the biggest stars they could find? Angie Harmon? Regina King? Tyne Daly? Daphne Zuniga? Felicity Huffman? (Okay, she was a nice pull, but they would have gotten more mileage out of Eva Longoria.) Of course they're able to go out and vote. Most of them don't have jobs these days.
Also, I'm a little insulted. There are probably more guys who don't vote than there are women. Where are our PSAs? I was going to vote, but now I'm not going to, until a celebrity gives me the go-ahead.
Who is the male Hollywood equivalent of a Regina King or Daphne Zuniga, anyway? Someone get Scott Baio on the phone, stat!
4 comments:
i am insulted. tyne daly is fine actress with broad talents which place her among the greats.
and eva longoria would have been a pull for MEN, not women. women would just look at her with disdain...
I'm sure Tyne Daly is a great actress, although I can't actually think of anything I've ever seen her in.
But does she really belong in an ad campaign that's shooting for "sexy," especially compared to those other actresses? It's like that old Sesame Street bit: "Which one of these things is not like the other?"
Before you insult who was chosen for the PSA, consider the target audiences, single women in various demographics. REGINA KING has been a fixture in black pop culture for years and years, from being a teenager on the sitcom 227 to starring in leading roles opposite Tupac, Janet Jackson, Will Smith, Chris Rock (as well as Reese Witherspoon, among other popular white actors) over the years. She has a resonance with young, black, single, educated women, that the more obvious "rap/hip-hop/UPN" star set wouldn't have. And, for a movie actress, she's not really been out of work in recent memory. DAPHNE ZUNIGA may only be starring in a the middling BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, now, but it's been a popular show with people in the 18-24 age group...and MELROSE PLACE is an iconic memory, pop-culture wise, for a generation's worth of young women and they might sit up ("isn't that Daphne Zuniga?") and notice if she show up on their small screen. TYNE DALY may seem like an odd choice, but if you want to target all single women, particularly those who feel marginalized by society, it probably wouldn't hurt to remember that there are quite a few, particularly divorced, women of a "certain age" who might benefit to be reminded of why their vote still matters. (Agree that Eva Longoria would appeal more to men, than women. Who view her as sexy, but not necessarily as smart or savvy as a Felicity Huffman.)
Daphne Zuniga is a great actress (Spaceballs - MELROSE PLACE - AMERICAN DREAMS - BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE). So beautiful and so hot!
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