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| Holly Mosher
"Bushit
Meter" |
Male Announcer 1:
Have you ever wanted to know when sombody's lying to you? Male Announcer 2: For only 19.95... Male Announcer 1: ...you can know the truth -- with the Bush-It meter. [SFX] Male Announcer 2: Give us our first lie. Female Announcer: We found a biological laboratory in Iraq. [SFX] (06/01/03) Female Announcer: We've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members. [SFX] (10/07/02) Male Announcer: Look at that! Female Announcer: Saddam recently sought signficant quantities of uranium from Africa. [SFX] (01/28/03) Male Announcer: Another lie! Female Announcer: There ought to be some limits to freedom. (05/21/99) Female Announcer: I believe God wanted me to be president. Male Announcer: The meter's overloading...it's too much...cut...stop the lies...stop the lies! [SFX: Bang!] |
| On the screen: Simple computer
animation. |
| Notes
and
Observations: Here is an excellent example
of an
individual citizen taking matters into their own hands. Holly Mosher discussed the ad in a couple of March 2005 e-mails: We did the ad for MoveOn.org and I kept
seeing the ads they were asking for money to play. I just felt that our
ad used humor in a cartoonish way that would possibly have a good chance at
reaching the young voters. Although I really liked a lot of the other Move-on
ads, I thought ours might have a higher impact on the younger voters (if
they weren't too cynical not to vote).
We made it for nothing in November of 2003 when they ran their campaign and then we were voted in to the top 10% of the ads. If they had not put our ad online in the spring, I never would have thought about doing this, but that gave it a bit of validation that at least some people really liked it. I bought ads in several cities, I'm from Milwaukee and had bought air time on Fox for the film "Lady in the Box", so I knew who to call to do it. The guy I worked with there was very positive about the idea and mentioned that I would get the low political ad rate, so I decided to go for it. We also purchased some air time in Miami, Grand Junction, Cedar Rapids, and Duluth. I tried to purchase in Pennsylvania but was shut down by what I believe to be censorship. They thought Bush IT is too much like Bu shit, but I didn't want to fight that battle. In Iowa we were even playing during the Simpsons, That 70s Show, etc. which was exactly the best place I thought our ad would be best received due to the particular style. I was very excited about those time slots. Anyway that is the story. We got some ads for as cheap as $25 and one for $975, but that played during a huge football game in Duluth, so I thought it would be worth the buy. Less than $10,000 was spent total and when I kept telling people what I was doing, they kept saying that they would be willing to pitch in. * * *
I also felt very compelled to run ads, to at least feel that I was doing my part. That has been a small consolation. I feel so strongly that before we went to war with Iraq the media had not been revealing the truth or doing strong investigative reporting. It was too frustrating not to take direct action and call Bush on his lies that everybody knew about but not because of the big news stations. I felt that if the lies Bush was telling the American people to wrangle support for an unjust war and they were told in an easy to digest format the public would be smart enough to connect the dots if it was presented in a humorous way. Unfortunately 30 seconds is far too short to expose and connect all of Bush's lies to the American public. I just finished reading The Lies of George W. Bush after the election by David Corn and was horrified and wish that it was a well read book. Holly Mosher grew up in Milwaukee, WI. and graduated with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While still in school, she designed the sound for the short film Tick, shown at Sundance. After graduation, Holly spent two years in Brazil working as an assistant picture and sound editor on four feature films, including Oscar nominated O Quatrilho. Returning to the US, she contributed to the PBS productions, Reading Rainbow and Puzzle Place. She then produced commercials and the feature films, Lady in the Box and Reeseville. Her directorial debut is hummingbird, a 48 minute documentary (Hollywoodnt Productions, LLC).
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