Christmas came a few days early this year as the Obama campaign—oops! Organizing for America—released the “Pajama Boy” ad.
No doubt you’ve unwrapped this package already and can’t believe you ever though Santa’s elves were weird. During the Christmas holidays—just in case you stupidly opened some other, duller present instead of this bringer of season’s cheer—Pajama Boy will “Wear Pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. And talk about getting health insurance.”
From his plaid onesie to his glasses, he is just perfect. And oh so smug! “All natural birth control right here, ladies,” tweeted Dana Loesch. “Have you ever wondered what a sleepover at [Washington Post ObamaCare groupie] Ezra Klein’s house looks like?” Legal Insurrection tweeted.
Please don’t miss National Review’s “Pajama Boy” slideshow featuring the best of the photoshops. (I particularly love the one that has White House Press Secretary Jay Carney as Pajama Boy, but there’s one for everybody.)
If I knew enough Millennial lingo to spice up the post, I might write on how Pajama Boy (can’t say that enough) reflects a cultural turning point: it marks the exact moment when President Obama lost his perfect pitch for the pop culture. Of course, I know President Obama doesn’t write ad copy, but this is a Moment. With the emergence of Pajama Boy, it’s the conservatives who seem cool and witty!
Twitchy has been having a field day:
Dan McLaughlin: “Obama appeals to the core ‘grown man in a onesie’ demographic.”
D. W. Robinson: “Is Testosterone therapy covered?”
Hugo Hackenbush: “This person is androgynous, ethnically neutral, yet still manages to elicit feelings of great loathing and repugnance.”
What happened to President Obama’s cool?
More than uncool, however, the Pajama Boy ad infantilizes young—er—adults. It assumes that they can be cajoled into buying a product—expensive health insurance, as opposed to catastrophic insurance, which makes more sense for young people—that is really more necessary to a government program than to their own welfare. (IWF’s Karin Agness made the point that these ads insult the intelligence of Millennials earlier this week on Greta van Susteren’s “Off the Record.”)
Hotair’s Allahpundit addresses various theories of why OFA produced this ad. He concludes:
And of course, among young adults just as in any other demographic, there’s low-hanging fruit who can’t be persuaded by normal means. Figure maybe 90 percent of twentysomethings can be reached through conventional political appeals. What about the remainder who think an ad showing uninsured “bros” risking injury through keg stands is a valuable cautionary tale, or that a guy in footie PJs holding a cup of hot chocolate couldn’t possibly have the wrong advice on risk management? They’re out there. They’ve got a little money saved. And they’re ready to be gouged by inflated premiums for insurance they don’t really need. All you need to do is ask the right way.
The alternative theory to all of that is that OFA really thought nothing of putting a grown man in a onesie. This wasn’t a gimmick to get attention, It’s just how they imagine the average socially conscious young male progressive dresses for sleepytime. I … can’t bring myself to believe that they think that. After all, the president is the ultimate socially conscious young(-ish) male progressive and he doesn’t dress in a onesie for bed. Right?
On a more serious note, National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson has a piece on how Millennials are already picking up the tab for a lot of redistribution. They are also being handed an America in which there are fewer jobs and the education system is decayed. And now President Obama is deploying Pajama Boy to trick them into buying his pet product, not to mention ruining Christmas.