• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t trust women.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

“But what about the lurkers?”

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

In my day, never was longer.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Question

Question

by DougJ|  June 21, 201112:31 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

Remember there used to be ads on tv — maybe there still are, but all the ads on my teevee are narrated by Don Draper now — where they’d have Humphrey Bogart drinking coca-cola with Louis Armstrong and stuff like that? Could Republican candidates do that with Reagan, have it look like they’re chilling with Reagan or getting endorsed by Reagan? I realize they might not be able to use political footage because his family might object, but what if one of them bought the rights to some Reagan movies and used footage from that? This seems so obvious I wonder if maybe this has already happened and I missed it.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « In the Integer-Based Community
Next Post: The Peace Dividend »

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    Trurl

    June 21, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    It’s an interesting idea. But I suspect that the Family would have veto power over the use of his image to promote things – even a “non-profit” one like an election campaign.

    They’ll have to settle for an unidentified-as-such Reagan impersonator.

  2. 2.

    cathyx

    June 21, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    You wonder about some odd things.

  3. 3.

    Citizen_X

    June 21, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Oh gawd no. Those ads creeped me right the fuck out. Hell, half of them were wingnut slashfic starring TEH DUKE (starbursts!).

  4. 4.

    RP

    June 21, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    There are right of publicity laws in states like California and New York that would make it very difficult to produce those ads without the family’s consent. Even an impersonator would run afoul of those laws.

  5. 5.

    Marsala

    June 21, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    That would probably be too shameless even for the Republicans.

  6. 6.

    Crusty Dem

    June 21, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    This would work if executed properly, I just doubt any of the GOPers could pull it off without looking like a total ass.. Which is a common problem for them..

  7. 7.

    Lol

    June 21, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    There’d be very little the Reagan family could do legally actually. It’d depend on what footage was used (copyright laws) but free speech issues would trump all.

    Now whether a Tv station would run the ad is another question.

  8. 8.

    Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory

    June 21, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    “The last thing George said to me, ‘Rock,’ he said, ‘sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper.”

  9. 9.

    Montysano

    June 21, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    Fake video can now be produced that is indistinguishable from reality (which in my old-fart opinion is an ominous thing). So yeah: with top-shelf tech talent, it’s completely possible.

  10. 10.

    scottinnj

    June 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Sorry DougJ but as usual the Onion was there first on how best to use Reagan’s legacy.

    http://www.theonion.com/video/zombie-reagan-raised-from-grave-to-lead-gop,14385/

  11. 11.

    Lol

    June 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    No court is going to rule you can’t invoke past presidents in a campaign commercial.

  12. 12.

    Tom

    June 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Ronald Reagan? The actor?

  13. 13.

    TK412

    June 21, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Why would it necessarily be a Republican who poses with Reagan? Barack Obama has spoken deep admiration for The Gipper:

    http://www.openleft.com/diary/3263/

  14. 14.

    Frank W.

    June 21, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Yes, good ol’ Saint Ronnie… I don’t know if any politician has been quite so deified in the last 50 years. Another case of a perhaps pleasant but largely plastic character becoming something quite mythic. Oh, I suppose a random troll will say that Obama supporters do the same thing, but whereas we’ve all heard liberal Dems. bemoan Obama’s shortcomings, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Republican do anything but murmur praise for Saint Ronnie. No wonder he would be an effective-if-deceased spokesman for today’s Repub. politicians.

  15. 15.

    fasteddie9318

    June 21, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    “I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper cut taxes on rich people and big corporations while gutting the social safety net for everyone else. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.”

    Now it’s all ready for production.

  16. 16.

    GregB

    June 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    I can already see the wheels turning in Michele Bachmann’s head and she’s planning on remaking the From Here to Eternity beach scene with Ronald Reagan.

  17. 17.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    June 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    Good lord..

    What a morbid idea…

    What would you call them…

    “Conversations w/ a Corpse”?

  18. 18.

    Martin

    June 21, 2011 at 12:51 pm

    I think Palin is the only one that can get away with an ad with her giving Reagan a blowjob that wouldn’t backfire with the base. My money is on her to try this.

  19. 19.

    justawriter

    June 21, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    Bedtime for Bonzo with Michelle Bachmann in the Diana Lynn role and OMG the potential substitutions for Bonzo are endless.

  20. 20.

    jibeaux

    June 21, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    To any normal audience, such an ad would scream “WE’RE REALLY SORRY ABOUT YOUR CHOICES. IT SUCKS THAT THIS GUY ISN’T AROUND ANY MORE. DOES IT HELP IF WE KIND OF FAKE IT LIKE HE IS? NO? I UNDERSTAND. REALLY, IT HURTS US MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU. WORTH A TRY, THOUGH.” but again, my problem is that it’s hard for me to view things outside the lens of normality.

  21. 21.

    DougJ in Damascus

    June 21, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    From Here to Eternity beach scene with Ronald Reagan.

    Hey, where’d I see this guy?

  22. 22.

    Brian

    June 21, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    Well, if BlackBerry can make use of Obama’s image for ads in China, why not?

  23. 23.

    ChrisNYC

    June 21, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    There’s a picture floating around with a ghosty RR toasting Palin. I know this from the red blogs — sometimes people post the picture, just the picture, as a comment. Ha! Fantastic!

  24. 24.

    Judas Escargot

    June 21, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    Why stop there? Collect all known footage of Reagan that’s legal to use, throw it on a Watson-class machine, and voila!, a full-on Reagan Simulacra (Cyber-Gipper?), ready for 2016.

    Nothing in the Constitution says that the President has to actually be human, after all. Or alive.

    Imagine the debates: “Tsk tsk. There you go again,” (beep, click, whirr). Audience bursts into laughter and applause. Cyber-Gipper in a landslide.

  25. 25.

    RossInDetroit

    June 21, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    It must be impractical or they’d have done it already.

  26. 26.

    cleek

    June 21, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    and then maybe some liberal group could dig up footage of Reagan as union boss. have a little faux-debate with one of today’s anti-union kocksuckers.

  27. 27.

    ChrisNYC

    June 21, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    There’s also ghosty Reagan shaking hands with Palin. “Rest easy, big guy, I’ll take it from here.” I love this stuff.

  28. 28.

    NonyNony

    June 21, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    Why stop there? Collect all known footage of Reagan that’s legal to use, throw it on a Watson-class machine, and voila!, a full-on Reagan Simulacra (Cyber-Gipper?), ready for 2016. … Nothing in the Constitution says that President has to actually be human, after all. Or alive.

    Hm. Well there’s that “Natural Born Citizen” clause that that the birthers like to harp on. While I might not have much sympathy for the “natural born” arguments I’m pretty sure you still have to be a “citizen” to be eligible for the Presidency.

    And then there’s that pesky age requirement. I’m afraid cyber-gipper is going to have to wait until he’s 35 just like everyone else.

  29. 29.

    Nash

    June 21, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    Every day seems one day closer to “Robocop” . . .

  30. 30.

    Citizen_X

    June 21, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    There’s a picture floating around with a ghosty RR toasting Palin.

    I had to find this. Here it is.

    Why Reagan is ghoulish green, I don’t know.

  31. 31.

    Judas Escargot

    June 21, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    @NonyNony

    Valid points, all. But IMO you misunderestimate the creativity of GOP lawyers and the SCOTUS once they realized what was possible.

    I like cleek’s idea of re-instantiating union-era Reagan, also. With today’s tech, we could even run multiple virtual instances of Ronald Reagan simultaneously, each from a different era, with a different opinion and demeanor.

    Then again, Romney’s already in the race.

  32. 32.

    bjacques

    June 21, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    @Tom 12:

    I see whut u did ther.

    The likenesses of a lot of famous dead people, like Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe, are owned by a management agency. They police unauthorized usage of images of their “clients” and then trot out them out to dance like zombie strippers, to hawk some product or another.

  33. 33.

    qwerty42

    June 21, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Well, here is just the movie: Desperate Journey. They could then join “Dutch” in a fight with the nazis.

  34. 34.

    JCT

    June 21, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Wow, Peggy Noonan would lose her cookies with happiness.

  35. 35.

    alwhite

    June 21, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Sheesh – Don’t give those clowns any more ideas about how to fellat the zombie Reagan!

  36. 36.

    Anonymous At Work

    June 21, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Reagan family would have veto power over that. The movie studios would own the images of the film footage. Big difference in incentives to license it out.

  37. 37.

    rumpole

    June 21, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Problems are as follows:
    1. Clearance from motion picture studio for clips
    2. Rights of publicity in CA survive death. The fact that he’s in the clip and the clip is licensed does not insulate the defendant from liability (Check the wendt case. Airport licenses robots that resemble Cliff and Norm from cheers for the bar. Norm sues. Norm wins under california rights of publicity)
    3. There may be false attribution issues as well. The First Amendment won’t necessarily protect these uses.

    On the other hand, clips of him acting as president would be different, and I don’t know the answer to that.

  38. 38.

    Jebediah

    June 21, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    Doug @ @1

    Hey, where’d I see this guy?

    Go on and get me my old movie stills
    Go on and get me another roll of pills…

  39. 39.

    Jebediah

    June 21, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    That’s Montgomery Clift, honey!

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Pennsylvanian on Hey Lurkers! (Apr 16, 2024 @ 12:12am)
  • Mr. Bemused Senior on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 16, 2024 @ 12:01am)
  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 16, 2024 @ 12:00am)
  • Quinerly on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:59pm)
  • NotMax on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:53pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!