Prior to the release of their Act 10 Protest documentary Forward (playing FREE this Thursday at 6:30p in the Central Library), Stumptown Media’s faux ad campaigns took politics down a few notches.
Before the 2012 Republican primary, Stumptown produced “The Most Interesting Republican in the World,” an ad that mimics the popular Dos Equis beer commercials, to boost the campaign of Madison activist Arthur Kohl-Riggs. Kohl-Riggs. Kohl-Riggs ran unsuccessfully against Walker as an alternative to the Governor’s private sector friendly campaign but is perhaps most famous for sporting his Abraham Lincoln likeness during the Capitol protests.
Of course, pimping a candidate dressed like Honest Abe with a faux beer commercial isn’t exactly shooting the audience straight. (The YouTube comments alone are worth clicking through.)
Stumptown doubled down on their foray into spoofery with the “Executives for Scott Walker” campaign, which puts cartoonish energy mogul “Klaus Berenkott” in front of the camera. Even if director Matt Mullins didn’t include the name of what amounts to a third-rate German Kaiser, the abrupt, self-aware pauses in Berenkott’s tirades against the middle class are enough to get across the tongue-in-cheek humor. *looks around nervously*
For last November’s gubernatorial election, Mullins directed a second “Executives for Scott Walker” piece, this time with “Melanie Crandall” of the “Easton Services Corporation.” Crandall trumpets the virtues of child labor and outsourcing the job market, this time with a straight face.
Stumptown’s political ads are obviously more farcical (borderline parodic, really) than the genuine subjectivity expressed in Forward but together, the ads and feature-length documentary share a person-centric focus. Warning: veracity of opinions expressed may vary.
- Forward plays FREE this Thursday at the Central Madison Library in Rm 302 at 6:30p. Co-director Matt Mullins will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.