Wednesday 19 March 2014

"Creepy Uncle Sam"



I chose the anti-Obamacare advert entitled “Creepy Uncle Sam”. The video was created by Generation Opportunity, a Koch Foundation-funded anti-Obamacare group. Their aim with the $750,000 campaign is to create adverts in order to convince college students to relinquish the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. According to Generation Opportunity, Evan Feinberg, the adverts are promoting an “Opt Out” option, where young people would “…have to pay a fine, but that’ going to be cheaper for you and better for you”. 

The advert depicts a young woman going to her OB/GYN for an exam but has her doctor replaced by a ‘creepy’ oversized Uncle Sam, who emerges between the woman’s legs as ominous circus music plays in the background, ending with the tagline “Don’t let the government play doctor”.

Generation Opportunity’s strategy appears to have unnerved the majority of its viewers, regardless of whether they are students or if they believe in the cause. One argument for this video is that there are of course some valid points for why the Obamacare system is flawed, but this advertisement video is surely the wrong way to go about it; one viewer writes “I'm speechless that this anti-Obamacare basically suggests the female patient gets raped. This is beyond having a position against it... this is down right creepy.”


Overall, although the group Generation Opportunity is entitled to their opinion and to express this opinion, they have not productively nor effectively done so through this video. You could argue they have disconcerted what supporters they did have and further turned people towards being in favour of Obamacare as a result.

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