February 4, 2010

Carly Fiorina’s Demon Sheep


The California gubernatorial contest has taken another early turn toward the weird with the best political attack ad ever: A three-minute stream of consciousness pastiche from former HP CEO Carly Fiorina that features footage of sheep, something about “fiscal conservatives in name only,” more sheep, B-roll of random stuff, and OMIGOD DEMON SHEEP! As one YouTube commenter puts it, “It’s like a first year film student project gone terribly wrong. LOL—for days.” Of course, there’s already a Twitter hashtag (#demonsheep). Can a mashup website, à la Keepin’ it Real With Michael Steele or the defunct Squirrelizer, be far behind?

Update: Asked how the ad was made, Fiorina’s deputy campaign manager for communications Julie Soderlund says that, contrary to speculation, the sheep scenes were not shot exclusively for the spot but were “really old footage” that ad’s creative team had “in the archives.” The ad was produced not by a film student but Fred Davis, a veteran GOP adman who made the McCain campaign’s “Celebrity” ad, which compared Barack Obama to Paris Hilton. Presumably the satantic sheep analogy didn’t feel right for that one.

This post has been updated.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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