More on MJF's Stem Cell Ad
NYT talks about why the ad is so powerful and resounding with viewers.
The plea is as disturbing - and arresting - as a hostage video from Iraq. In a navy blazer and preppy Oxford shirt, the actor Michael J. Fox calmly asks viewers to support stem cell research by voting for several Democratic candidates in Maryland, Missouri and Wisconsin, while his body sways back and forth uncontrollably like a sailor being tossed around in a full-force gale.
In short, Mr. Fox’s display of the toll Parkinson’s disease has taken on him turned into one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years.
[...] The issue of embryonic stem cell research is divisive, but Mr. Fox is not. And that is one reason his advertisement had such resonance. He is a popular actor who played a young conservative Republican on the sitcom “Family Ties.” His illness was diagnosed in 1991, but he kept it secret until 1998. In 2000, he told his fans that because of his illness, he had to quit the hit sitcom “Spin City.” He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance stem cell research, lobbied Congress and made commercials to rally support for his cause.
But he has rarely looked quite as infirm. Mr. Fox was recently a guest star on several episodes of the ABC drama “Boston Legal,” and, presumably thanks to medication, his symptoms there were less noticeable.
If Mr. Fox did forgo medication for the advertisement as Mr. Limbaugh suggested, it could hardly be considered fraudulent: if anything, masking the extent of the disease’s ravages is the deception, not revealing them. (A spokesman for Mr. Fox said his tremors were caused by his medication.) It was certainly the most dramatic way Mr. Fox has to personalize the issue; he used his infirmity much the way the late Christopher Reeve did when he lobbied for stem cell research to seek a cure for spinal injuries.
If you haven't seen the ad yet, click here. And please, post the video in your own blogs or email to your friends - I think everyone should see it, ESPECIALLY if they're on the fence about stem-cell research. Please.
In related news:
++ Rush Limbaugh is still a dick who won't apologize for saying MJF is "faking it", and
++ MJF is going to be at a Rally with Jim Webb next Thursday, November 2nd, at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington. Ooooh! Ooooh! Any fellow NoVA peeps wanna come out with me? Because I *so* have to be there.
The plea is as disturbing - and arresting - as a hostage video from Iraq. In a navy blazer and preppy Oxford shirt, the actor Michael J. Fox calmly asks viewers to support stem cell research by voting for several Democratic candidates in Maryland, Missouri and Wisconsin, while his body sways back and forth uncontrollably like a sailor being tossed around in a full-force gale.
In short, Mr. Fox’s display of the toll Parkinson’s disease has taken on him turned into one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years.
[...] The issue of embryonic stem cell research is divisive, but Mr. Fox is not. And that is one reason his advertisement had such resonance. He is a popular actor who played a young conservative Republican on the sitcom “Family Ties.” His illness was diagnosed in 1991, but he kept it secret until 1998. In 2000, he told his fans that because of his illness, he had to quit the hit sitcom “Spin City.” He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance stem cell research, lobbied Congress and made commercials to rally support for his cause.
But he has rarely looked quite as infirm. Mr. Fox was recently a guest star on several episodes of the ABC drama “Boston Legal,” and, presumably thanks to medication, his symptoms there were less noticeable.
If Mr. Fox did forgo medication for the advertisement as Mr. Limbaugh suggested, it could hardly be considered fraudulent: if anything, masking the extent of the disease’s ravages is the deception, not revealing them. (A spokesman for Mr. Fox said his tremors were caused by his medication.) It was certainly the most dramatic way Mr. Fox has to personalize the issue; he used his infirmity much the way the late Christopher Reeve did when he lobbied for stem cell research to seek a cure for spinal injuries.
If you haven't seen the ad yet, click here. And please, post the video in your own blogs or email to your friends - I think everyone should see it, ESPECIALLY if they're on the fence about stem-cell research. Please.
In related news:
++ Rush Limbaugh is still a dick who won't apologize for saying MJF is "faking it", and
++ MJF is going to be at a Rally with Jim Webb next Thursday, November 2nd, at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington. Ooooh! Ooooh! Any fellow NoVA peeps wanna come out with me? Because I *so* have to be there.