Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad

Responds to John McCain Ad is a video directed by Adam McKay and posted on funnyordie.com, making fun of a television commercial by candidate John McCain during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign, in which entrepreneur, actress and singer Paris Hilton announces a supposed policy position that takes elements of the energy policy proposals of McCain and his rival Barack Obama.__NOTOC__

Video

On August 6, 2008, Hilton responded to John McCain's anti-Obama campaign ad titled "Celeb," [cite news | title=John McCain's "Celeb" Ad | url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHXYsw_ZDXg] , in which McCain alleged Obama to be a celebrity akin to Britney Spears and Hilton, by declaring her own candidacy on Will Ferrell's funnyordie.com. In her video, [cite news | title=Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain Ad | url=http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d] she explains her stance on foreign oil dependency, concluding her declaration by saying "I'll see you at the debates, bitches." [cite news | title=Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain Ad | url=http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d] Within the first three hours of being posted, the video had already garnered 400,000 views.cite news | title=Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain Ad | url=http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d] , and within two days, it had garnered over 7 million views.

In the video, Hilton appears wearing a leopard-print swimsuit. [cite news |first=Jay |last=Fitzgerald|title=Paris Hilton electrifies campaign |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1111580&srvc=rss |publisher=Boston Herald |date=2008-08-07 |accessdate=2008-08-20] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author=Page, Clarence |title=Paris Hilton's BIG IDEA on energy |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0810pageaug10,0,3496620.column |publisher=Chicago Tribune |date= 2008-08-10|accessdate=2008-08-20 ] Hilton's proposal centered on the idea that "We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars."

Reception

Her satirical video received wide attention. McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds praised the video, jokingly saying that "Paris has a more substantive energy plan than Barack Obama." [ [http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/05/mccain-paris-is-my-energizer-bunny McCain -- Paris Is My Energizer Bunny] ] Congressman Michael Burgess praised the plan and noted that it had elements similar to plans previously proposed in Congress. [cite news |title=Congressman Says Paris Hilton's Economic Plan Has Legs |url=http://www.nbc5i.com/news/17126997/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=news |publisher=nbci5.com |date=2008-08-07 |accessdate=2008-08-20 ]

Clarence Page wrote a piece in the Chicago Tribune saying that Hilton's proposal had merit but criticized the plan as requiring tax incentives that Americans would need to pay for. Eoin O'Carroll in the Christian Science Monitor along with others have argued that improving fuel efficiency would actually take less time than allowing offshore drilling and thus the use of offshore drilling in Hilton's proposal as a temporary measure would not work.cite news |first=Eoin |last=O'Carroll|title=Will Paris Hilton’s energy plan work? |url=http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/08/06/will-paris-hiltons-energy-plan-work/ |format= |work=Bright Green Blog |publisher=Christian Science Monitor |date=2008-08-06 |accessdate=2008-08-20 ] O'Carroll also argued that off-shore drilling would not release substantial quantities of oil to have a significant effect.

Howard Fineman of "Newsweek" agreed with Hilton's proposal. "Paris's message: don't stress, don't dis each other's ideas, let's just try everything! It doesn't get any smarter than that. McCain and Obama, by contrast, are engaged in a phony war that refuses to accept the Hiltonian point: we need every tactic in this new energy war." [http://www.newsweek.com/id/151256?from=rss] Discover Magazine's Tyghe Trimble called Hilton's proposal "all wrong" and focused on the difference between energy and oil. Trimble believed that Hilton's claim of a comprehensive energy policy was false since her policy did not deal with anything other than oil while a proper energy policy would include alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and nuclear power. [cite news |first=Tyghe |last=Trimble |title=Paris Hilton’s Energy Policy Is All Wrong |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/08/06/paris-hiltons-energy-policy-is-all-wrong/ |publisher=Discover Magazine |date=2008-08-10 |accessdate=2008-08-20] PBS's Gwen Ifill, opined that "people in the West [states] are concerned about [...] what feels to them like a knee-jerk opposition to oil drilling on the part of the Democratic Party, and that's why you've heard Barack Obama and then Speaker Pelosi today begin to shade their opposition a little bit to oil drilling. They're trying to say they're open to it. I, I call it the 'Paris Hilton compromise.' All of a sudden they're saying there is room for this." [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26377338/page/4/]

Two weeks later, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi mentioned the McCain campaign's endorsement of Hilton's energy plan as a ploy to divert attention from larger issues, such as the economy. Said Pelosi, "We cannot be diverted to the silliness that the McCain campaign — of course they want to talk about Paris Hilton. Would they want to talk about why they have the worst record of job creation in America?" [ [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12839.html Pelosi Says Polls Shortchange Obama] ]

See also

* Energy crisis
* Petroleum politics
* Political positions of John McCain#Energy and environmental policy
* Political positions of Barack Obama#Energy policy

Notes

External links

* [http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad: An ad for The Paris Hilton Presidential Campaign. Produced by Funny Or Die."]
* [http://www.westwoodone.com/pg/jsp/larryking/transcript.jsp;jsessionid=323E3609BD2B4E82BF413346ADBB5DA8?pid=23330 Transcript of "Larry King Live" segment discussing Hilton's spoof politcal ad, with Kings' guests including its director, Adam McKay.]