The Government Goes for Guffman

Apologies for today's lack of posts , as I was finishing up a few projects most of the day.

So I will weigh in on the Super Bowl ad that has stirred the most political debate, post-game: No, it's not the Tim Tebow spot from Focus on the Family, which turned out to be much ado about nothing, but the spot for the U.S. Census.

Created by Christopher Guest, best known for "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show," the spot was a rather irreverent effort to get the suspicious or apathetic public to fill out their forms for this year's constitutionally required count. Reviews of the spot were mixed, as some critics found that the message may have gotten lost in the ad's artfulness, and that the audience most likely to respond are the same people most likely to turn in their forms. Chuck Todd of NBC News tweeted, "Really, census people, that's as good as you can do? That should cost Hollywood a Cong. seat." (Hey, it's better than previous efforts, including this 1980 spot with Edward James Olmos.)

Given the massive sums for 30-second spots --- upwards of $2.5 million this year --- the Census Bureau's outlay came under fire from John McCain, who wrote that "we shouldn't be wasting $2.5 million taxpayer dollars to compete with ads for Doritos!" But the Census Bureau argued that even a slight increase in participation can save taxpayers many multiples of that. Given that the Super Bowl generated 106.5 million viewers, the largest audience ever for a single network telecast, they may have the last laugh. And critics aside, no one came out a bigger winner than Guest: More people probably saw the spot than ever went to his movies --- combined.