Morgan Freeman denounces sound-alike GOP campaign ad

[Octafish]

Source: Washington Post

Morgan Freeman has one of those instantly-recognizable voices: deep, wise, trustworthy. Which is why a L.A. political firm thought the Oscar-winning actor -- who's portrayed God, the president, and the smartest guy in the room -- was the perfect choice to narrate an ad for B.J. Lawson, a Republican running for Congress in North Carolina.

One small problem: Freeman's a Democrat and unlikely to work for a GOP candidate. So MEI Political hired a "voice double" to do the ad, which debuted Friday. "The audience never notices the difference," wrote a company consultant in an e-mail to Lawson. "It's one of those little secrets of Hollywood. We've used them with great success in political ads. We of course never say that they are the actual celebrity, but voters recogniz their voice and trust it." (Don't want Freeman? They also offer voice doubles for William Shatner, Donald Sutherland, Sam Elliott, Queen Latifah, John Goodman, and Ray Romano.)

You know what happened next: Freeman was furious when he heard the ad and denied doing it. "These people are lying," he said in a statement. "I have never recorded any campaign ads for B. J. Lawson and I do not support his candidacy. And, no one who represents me has ever authorized the use of my name, voice or any other likeness in support of Mr. Lawson or his candidacy."

Lawson's campaign, which originally bragged about Freeman doing the voiceover, apologized Monday and claimed it genuinely believed he had done the work. MEI released a statement saying it disclosed, verbally and in writing, that it was using a voice double. Ah, don't you love politics?



Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2010/11/rs-_morgan_freeman.html

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Did you ever notice how the GOP always cheats?

[Ian David]

1. You don't fuck with Easy Reader. n/t

[Octafish]

3. LOL!

The guy's got the same thing most of us old guys got, the idea that we're still 18.

BTW: The GOOPers said the campaign "was approached" by a credentialed firm that did the commercial.

Morgan Freeman is mad about GOP's Morgan Freeman impersonator ad

November 2, 2010 | 12:51 pm

EXCERPT...

Ouch! Even worse, the GOP candidate's campaign did a lousy job of dissembling when confronted with the impersonator issue. Instead of immediately apologizing, Lawson's campaign manager initially said "we have a contract saying it's Morgan Freeman," explaining that they'd been approached by a campaign supporter, with a supposedly impressive portfolio of work with other showbiz celebrities, who had offered to cut an ad with Freeman. Now that Freeman has gone public, the campaign is finally pulling the ad, admitting that they'd been bamboozled and saying "this is obviously not what we want to be talking about" a day before voting.

What is a just punishment? I say all of Lawson's campaign staff should be forced to watch Freeman and Antonio Banderas in "Thick as Thieves," a heist thriller made a couple of years ago that was such a stinker it went straight to DVD without a theatrical release. I'm guessing the heist in the movie didn't turn out any better than the Lawson campaign ad.

SOURCE: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/11/morgan-freeman-mad-about-gops-morgan-freeman-impersonator-ad-.html

Where DO they get all this money? In Michigan, compared to the GOOP, we've hardly seen the DEMs on the tee vee.

[Love Bug]

2. "B.J." Lawson?

Some jokes just write themselves...

[Octafish]

4. Doesn't mean the same thing for North Carolina repuglicants.

The guy is a real-life brain surgeon who wants to go to Washington. "B.J." stands for "Big Jump" in paygrade.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.

[Octafish]

6. Thanks, Uncle Joe! This story may have some legs...

The company behind it says they let Lawson know up-front it wasn't Freeman:

B.J. Lawson Apologizes For Using Fake Morgan Freeman Voice in Ad.

Wall Street Journal
November 2, 2010, 3:45 PM ET.

EXCERPT...

Lawson’s camp is now running an apology on his official website, saying that they were duped. “This is obviously not something we ever would want to misrepresent. Once we found out that our contracted advertisement was not narrated by Morgan Freeman, we immediately pulled our ads,” the statement reads. “Our campaign is comprised almost entirely of volunteers and we were presented with an opportunity to make a great ad — unfortunately these political mercenaries completely misrepresented their offering and contract with us to take our money.”

But not so fast: MEI Political, the Los Angeles, political firm that created the ad, has released its own statement denying that they misled the Lawson camp. The company claims that they made it known to the campaign from the start that they were using a voice double for Freeman for the ad. (Maybe it’s this guy?)

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/11/02/bj-lawson-apologizes-for-using-fake-morgan-freeman-voice-in-ad/

Voice double!

Most importantly: You are most welcome, my Friend!

[True_Blue]

7. They're lying or really stupid

if they believed that a big Hollywood megastar like Morgan Freeman would actually endorse Lawson.:rofl:

[howmad1]

8. Not so stupid!

How many people heard the ad and thought it was Morgan Freeman? Typical of rethuglicans: "Oops, we fucked up, so sorry." Well after the fact. Someday maybe the democrats will turn out to be as "stupid" as the rethuglicans. Won't hold my breath.

[MarthaM]

9. Same thing in Wisconsin governor race

The Republican candidate, Scott Walker, did the same thing. He's slimy, so I wasn't surprised he did it or that he pretended that it was just some random voice they chose for an ad.