TV AND THE GULF WAR : Celebrity Sing-Along for Troops Takes on the Aura of a Commercial
A smarmy huckster for a Los Angeles car dealership has Old Glory for a backdrop these days while making his current TV pitch: “As a tribute to American troops, an All-American sale!”
You’d love to give him an All-American salute right in the chops.
An agency executive is on target on tonight’s PBS documentary “Selling the Dream,” when he says of advertising that the United States “is all about selling. (Americans) love shell games,” he adds. “They love Vegas. They like advertising.”
If so, they must be euphoric.
One can argue, in fact, that all of television is advertising--so much so that you no longer can tell the free commercials from the paid ones. Said a producer for a network show featuring entertainers: “I am very, very frustrated getting calls from all these musicians who are putting together songs about the war that they hope will get them exposure.”
Everyone wants a commercial.
Julia Roberts grinding out TV interviews timed to the release of her new film, “Sleeping With the Enemy?” Commercial.
A morning show featuring a star appearing on the same network that night? Commercial.
A station using its local newscasts to promote its entertainment lineup? Commercial.
President Bush posing for photographers in the Oval Office while decrying Saddam Hussein’s propaganda as “lies and falsehoods?” Commercial.
Hussein manipulating CNN? Commercial.
And, nearly 100 celebrities turning out at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank on Sunday to record “Voices That Care” in front of perhaps a dozen TV crews and scores of still photographers and print reporters?
Commercial .
Perhaps it wasn’t planned that way by all the celebrities who gave their time, without being paid, to sing support of troops in the Persian Gulf for a video and record whose profits are targeted for groups bolstering the military and their families.
Viewed from this side of the screen, however, the whole affair looked suspiciously like one of those tailored-for-television, aren’t-we-great-Americans-for-supporting-the-troops? galas that are the dreams of press agents. The view up close wasn’t so inspiring, either.
A TV reporter on the scene called it “a feeding frenzy,” a Hollywood-style media circus where MTV’s Downtown Julie Brown and camera crews from CNN, TV tabloids and “Entertainment Tonight” lined up side by side. With everyone pushing together and competing for space and stars, this may have been the most chaotic and physically dangerous media crush since the day Michael Jackson got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984.
The giant public relations firm of Rogers & Cowan made the media calls and staffed Sunday’s event with a platoon of publicists.
“The media came because they delivered the stars and gave a lot of bang for the buck,” said the TV reporter, requesting anonymity. “How often do you see Sally Field or Richard Gere or Michelle Pfeiffer or Meryl Streep come out for something? You’d see someone interviewing Kevin Costner, and suddenly there’d be eight more microphones in his face.”
The celebrities arrived at the studio with all the pomp of Oscar night. A plan to have the children of prisoners of war escort them to the stage was abandoned for lack of time, mercifully.
The entertainment community has a long tradition of mobilizing for various enterprises. However, unlike the famed anti-famine “We Are the World” recording session in 1985, in which the press was excluded from the entire recording, the media on Sunday was allowed to see celebrities sing the song whose melody was co-written by Pete Cetera and David Foster with lyrics by Foster’s fiancee, Linda Thompson Jenner.
“I’d say 75% of the focus was on the press, 25% to the song,” said the reporter.
It’s no wonder. As one could guess from watching Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King croon with their fellow celebrities on TV, most of them aren’t singers or musicians at all. Thus, with the exception of a few actual solos, the celebrities may be essentially mouthing the words of vocals sung by professionals.
Lip syncers who care? As long as it’s for a worthy cause.
