I’m told that CNBC’s Jim Cramer, host of “Mad Money”, and I have a bit of a resemblance.
So – if Thompson Building and Remodeling, who’ve been sponsoring the Northern Alliance for most of this past five or six years, hires me to endorse their services, even though I don’t make any “Cramer” references whatsoever during the ads, is Thompson “impersonating Cramer?”
We’ll come back to that.
———-
Jill Burcum isn’t the worst, most in-the-bag-for-the-Democrats Strib editorial writer. That “distinction” floats at random between Lori Sturdevant, Jon Tevlin and most of the rest of the staff.
And I don’t mean that to sound as nasty as it probably does. If more of the Strib’s editorial writers were in Burcum’s “I’m a DFLer, but I don’t want to come across like an obvious house shill” weight class, the Strib and its editorial would be less a laughingstock.
Still, priorities are priorities. Burcum takes umbrage, on behalf of Morgan Freeman, at the latest ad for Sheila Harsdorf in her battle for the Wisconsin Senate in the district just across the St. Croix from the Metro against Shelly “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED UNIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON” Moore.
The latest attack ad on Wisconsin state Senate candidate Shelly Moore instantly prompts this question: How’d they get actor Morgan Freeman to do the voiceover?
The reality is that it’s not Freeman, whose authoritative voice made him a logical choice to play God in the hit film “Bruce Almighty” a few years back. Instead, the slippery group funding the ad found somebody who sounds just like Freeman.
So what does Burcum suggest? That established voice-over guys be able to trademark the timbre and tone of their voices, so nobody else can sound like them?
Because Burcum sounds serious:
The [organization funding the spots’] latest effort is nothing less than a fake celebrity endorsement of Moore’s opponent, Republican Sheila Harsdorf, in the recall election taking place just across the border.
Baloney. The guy’s voice sounds like Morgan Freeman, in the same way that I look like Jim Cramer. Did he say “I”m Morgan Freeman?” No. Does his voice say “I’m detached and authoritative, like Morgan Freeman’s?” Sure. Is it of any legal or ethical weight? If it is, then everyone with a passing resemblance to a celebrity who swerves into the public eye in any way loses their stock in trade.
(And this lawsuit, by Bette Midler against a soundalike who sang one of her songs on a commercial, tucks in the legal case. Being a soundalike isn’t in and of itself an issue; Midler’s suit got tossed).
Let’s try this, and see if Burcum squawks.
“DFL and RINOs good. Conservatives bad. Vote for Sheila Harsdorf!”
Now, was that actually Lori Sturdevant endorsing Harsdorf? Of course not. Did I try to leverage the coincidental resemblance of the line I wrote with a regional celebrity’s trademark dogmatism? Perhaps, but so what? Does a celebrity own their tone, their timbre and cadence and presentation?
If so, Burcum might be getting a call from Doug Grow’s lawyer.
The problem for Burcum isn’t that the voiceover guy doing the ad sounds like Morgan Freeman. The problem is that Shelly Moore sounds like Jiang Qing.
The Republicans found an effective marketing tool? Damn them! Damn them all to Hell!!!!
The preceding was a volunteer editorial for the Star Tribune, the most unbiased newspaper just West of the Mississippi.
Personally, having Darth Vader say “This is CNN” tells me all I need to know about that network.
You’re taller than Cramer, and I think you’re MUCH better looking as well.
Your voices sound nothing alike. Although, you DO both behave very energetically when you are moved to rant about something that is important to you, LOL.
As to the guy who sounds like Morgan Freeman? Even Morgan Freeman himself thinks the guy sounds like he does – and if anyone is familiar with his speaking voice and style, you can bet Morgan Freeman knows what that sounds like. He sounds tremendously like Freeman, and that assertion that his selection was a coincidence is nonsense – as are the ads claims:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/08/04/reality-check-the-truth-about-those-wis-political-ads/
Freeman has a very specfic recognition and respect.
The political right in WI has been playing some unusually dirty politics this election cycle, with those mailings and robocalls to democrats that give the wrong date for the elections.
:http://ballotnews.org/2011/08/05/formal-complaints-and-allegations-mark-wisconsin-recalls-days-before-voters-head-to-polls/
Oh, and I forgot to include this link as well:
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/127152603.html
Dog Gone is so funny.
And I think Comrade Moore’s actual quote is “Weeeee Breeeeathhh Uuuuunion”. They are her masters, after all.
The problem is not conservative media outfits pushing conservative stories, it’s “unbiased” media pushing liberal stories.
Funny how almost know one really internally relates to how they sound to others. Since the sound of speaking is transmitted through the internal escutcheon tubes and the facial bones, the sound waves reaching our ears are significantly different than what others hear. So while an actor may be more familiar with how their own voice sounds to others, because they see and hear more recordings of themselves speaking than others typically do, it is not a given that someone is an expert on how their own voice sounds to others.
But when they shake their fists or wag their fingers, it becomes all too clear.
So that is what modern politics has gotten to. You have to vote for a left wing Democrat because a conservative group hired a voice guy who sounds a little like Morgan Freeman.
I say vote Republican because the Democrats are running a union shrill who sounds a bit like a socialist.
Hey Dog, you should provide the link to the Milwaukee JS where they ruled Shelly “WE ARE UNION” Moore is a “liar”.
escutcheon:
1: a defined area on which armorial bearings are displayed and which usually consists of a shield
2: a protective or ornamental plate or flange (as around a keyhole)
3: the part of a ship’s stern on which the name is displayed
eustachian: a bony and cartilaginous tube connecting the middle ear with the nasopharynx and equalizing air pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane —called also auditory tube
“Escutcheon” comes from the latin for “shield”
“Eustachian” comes from the last name of the early Italian anatomist who first described the mechanism of the inner ear..
I just want it to end so I can stop seeing these damn recall commercials. Prediction, Harsdorf wins 55-45
Thanks for the usual chuckle at your selective reasoning, Doggie!
Of course, the blatant lies against Sheila Harsdorf directed by union goon Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the WI AFL-CIO, aren’t dirty tricks in your twisted, morally corrupt mind. And, let’s not talk about him being head of the WI Technical Schools, where he can oversee the indoctrination the next generation of entitled recruits to a lifetime of union slavery!
Shelly Moore used state resources to campaign and when confronted, blew it off like it was no big deal! In true liberat vain, I am going to suggest that if she couldn’t even make here marriage work, how can she serve the people of WI? Of course, I am sure that if I were married to a shrieking sycophant like her, I would have bailed, too!
And she would have been shaking her fist at you, Boss.
Terry, I stand corrected.