Perhaps nothing validates the claim of a Hollywood bubble – that is, that celebrities and entertainers live lives so completely isolated from general humanity that they are completely unaware of what average citizens experience and believe – quite like the continued emergence of the celebrity activist video short.
These song compilations, brief melodramas, and lip-syncs are all coordinated and produced by Hollywood A-listers to push some left-wing, progressive cause, candidate, or campaign. And every single one is so incredibly cringeworthy, it is panned and mocked by normal people everywhere. Yet, it's as if the stars that participate are completely insulated from the ridicule, so much so that they continue agreeing to take part in the next one.
In case you've forgotten, here's a brief history. First came the horrific Hillary Clinton "Fight Song" montage in 2016:
When that breathtaking performance just wasn't quite enough to push Hillary over the finish line, a new group popped up to attempt to taunt then-President Trump with a performance of "We Wish You a Mueller Christmas":
And just when the world thought it couldn't get any worse, some of the richest, most pampered people on the planet decided to create another video to preach the glory of "no possessions" amidst a global pandemic. They recorded it as they sat amongst their many possessions while everyone else was watching their livelihood quarantined into oblivion.
Each one of these videos seemingly worse than the one before it. Each one berated and trashed worse than its predecessor. And they just keep making them. The latest isn't a song, at least. Still, what singer Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom's video to encourage opposition to voter integrity laws lacks in harmonies, it makes up for in overacted melodrama.
Good grief.
So, may I just ask who the target demographic is here for this ad? I understand that it's probably not me – a college educated white guy, who lives in central Indiana, has conservative politics, and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. But is it young people? Like high-school aged perhaps?
I played the ad for a group of high school kids with a range of political views just to gauge their reactions. They didn't laugh, they just stared. At first, they thought it was some kind of B-movie trailer, then realizing it was meant to be a call to action, acknowledged it was really bad.
Is it college kids who grew up watching Orlando Bloom movies and singing Katy Perry songs that they are hoping to win over? If so, the appeal totally overlooks the fact that by college, most of the fangirling has ceased and has been replaced by at least some modicum of self-respect. That is to say, few biomedical engineering students or even gender studies students who feign their intellectual capacity are going to jump on board a cause just because the "Pirates of the Caribbean" dude or the "Dark Horse" girl dressed up in wigs to try to scare them into it.
So maybe it's older people that are easily panicked or scared by hyperbolic and exaggerated threats who are being targeted? If so, why Perry and Bloom, two people who have virtually no audience with anyone over 40?
Is it for progressives? They are already on board.
Is it for conservatives? They are already opposed.
So who is it for and what's the public relations data that shows something like this plays well with any group?
Absent that, what does it say about these celebrities that they are so painfully unaware of the general climate of humanity that they don't know any better than to do things like this? Assuming this wasn't Bloom and Perry's idea, why would they ever agree to it? What social deficiency keeps them so keenly unaware of what motivates, inspires, and plays to normal people?
I'm not sure I'll ever understand. And clearly, they won't either.
