Trump’s new Star Wars-themed attack ad proves you can’t escape The Force Awakens

How big has Star Wars: The Force Awakens become? Big enough to play a part in the race for the nation’s highest office.

Okay, so it’s probably not going to have an effect on the election, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, Republican front-runner Donald Trump has used the film in a new attack ad against President Barack Obama. Set aside for a moment that he’s attacking Obama — whose term as president is up in 2016 — and not Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or any of his current Republican or potential Democratic opponents, and focus on the fact that Star Wars is now officially everywhere.

Entitled We need a real President!, the ad opens as an imitation Imperial March plays in the background. The words “we are in a serious war” flash on the screen. This is followed by an unnerving montage of basically anything frightening that The Donald could get his hands on, which cuts out as the text flashes on screen again: “our President is busy with another war …”

Cut to Obama ending a press conference by saying “OK everybody I gotta get to Star Wars” before the ad wraps up with “time for a real leader with real priorities.”

We don’t like to delve too deeply into politics here, but we have to say that — judging by the box-office numbers — it seems that skipping Star Wars would have been the least presidential thing to do in the period following the film’s release. In this day and age, if an American president is to be well versed in domestic affairs, they had better know their Star Wars.

We kid, of course. You can form your own judgment about the merits of Trump’s ad, but for us, nothing can compete with Luke Skywalker 2016: A new hope for America!

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1NW9hzw
Adam Poltrack