July 28, 2011

Does this Wisconsin recall ad sound like it's narrated by Morgan Freeman?



There's a big controversy about whether this is a deceptive ad.

Morgan Freeman's representative confirmed to The Huffington Post that the narrator of the ad is not Freeman: "While the ad in Wisconsin attempts to sound like Morgan Freeman, it clearly is an attempt to deceive. Morgan Freeman did not narrate that ad."
This is a deliberate Morgan Freeman imitation:



And here's the real Morgan Freeman, talking like Morgan Freeman:



Is the recall ad deceptive?
No. It doesn't sound that much like Freeman.
Yes. It sounds like Freeman and it was deliberate.
No. It sounds a little like Freeman, but I don't think it was intentional.
Yes. Even if they weren't trying to sound like Freeman, it will fool some people and that's wrong.

  
pollcode.com free polls

55 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

Freeman is now the official voice of God.

Because he's black.

Trooper York said...

Wrong video I think.

Or does Morgan Freeman sound like Carole King in real life.

mesquito said...

I distincly heard Not Gene Hackman doing a car ad during the news.

Ann Althouse said...

@Trooper That's a glitch I've seen before. The right videos are up, but your browser is pulling up something in a post further down on the page.

It looks right to me.

Heart_Collector said...

Who the fuck cares who got paid to narrate.

Is this where the Dems lost you....

Trooper York said...

This stuff happens to me all the time.

I try to download the Smurfs new movie and instead I get Japanese porn.

Trooper York said...

Or at least that's my story and I am stick to it.

Trooper York said...

And my chair.

edutcher said...

It only matters if you let Morgan Freeman do your thinking for you.

TosaGuy said...

So why did Shelly Moore vote for all those taxes?

Ron said...

I'd love to see Morgan Freeman narrate Japanese porn.

Synova said...

Who would recognize it? Even if it was deliberate?

And by "deliberate" I mean: Hey, Sal, what we want for this bit is something that sounds friendly, down-home, you know what I mean? Not the typical ad announcer but something less formal. Maybe a bit like Morgan Freeman. You know how he talks? Someone you trust is talking to you. Like that.

And Sal says: I can do Morgan Freeman, more or less.

The idea that this is *deceptive* as if the purpose is to imply the endorsement by Freeman in a local Wisconsin race is ridiculous.

Irene said...

That voice also spoke in Fall 2010 ads for Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaign.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Why does Morgan Freeman hate women, children and illegal immigrants??

Heart_Collector said...

Ann did you see Morgan Freeman narrate a Obama commercial and thats why Mccain lost you?

ricpic said...

In The Bucket List Morgan Freeman was allowed to get mad at Jack Nicholson but not vice versa. Dems the rules folks.

Carol_Herman said...

What backfires is that you're looking to defeat a woman.

And,you get this voice over that's definitely a "foreign accented" man. Foreigh enough ... that he doesn't come from anything North of Mississippi.

Now. When Barry Goldwater LOST ... and you try to claim that LBJ was a better candidate, you'd lose the argument right there.

But Goldwater wasn't a nice guy. Nor could he recognize talent. So, instead of using Reagan ... where all Reagan got was to give ONE SPEECH ...

Guess who really won the contest OVER TIME?

Do enough people watch TV anymore so that commercials matter? (Okay. You're saying no one in Madison drinks O'Douls.) Does this give Miller, or Bud, the edge? Piss water being piss water.

A good candidate ... who knows his or her district ... has no fear of mumbo jumbo.

Is this add supposed to appeal to renters?

Mary Beth said...

If it's not meant to sound like Morgan Freeman, why use someone who sounds like a southerner? Normally you would want the accent of the people you are talking to so that they more easily identify with the speaker.

Chuck66 said...

When I first saw this commercial I thought "hmmm, they have a black guy doing the voiceover", but whatever. It never occured to me that they hired Morgan Freeman.

By the way, the anti-Harsdorf ads have officially reached moonbat status. The airwaves are saturated with ads saying the Harsdorf is a greedy capitalist.

Chuck66 said...

The real scandel is that Shelley Moore's commercials have a guy who sounds just like a socialist.

Known Unknown said...

Freeman is on the g.d. payroll.

Dave in Tucson said...

I imagine a scene, a smoke-filled back room, somewhere behind closed doors.

OPERATIVE 1: Wow, Moore's really getting hammered by that latest attack ad.

OPERATIVE 2: We must respond--get the facts out!

OPERATIVE 1: Er... well, that's the problem. The facts kinda work against us here.

OPERATIVE 2: Drat. Is there anything we can get traction on?

OPERATIVE 1: Well... the narrator sounds like Morgan Freeman, but it's not.

OPERATIVE 2: Dude! Why didn't you say so in the first place? That's gold, right there!

garage mahal said...

26% didn't think it was deliberate? Haha.

garage mahal said...

Chuck, I take it you're in SD10? I feel sorry for you dude, I bet you're getting just carpetbombed with ads. None here.

Paco Wové said...

ST: I thought the voice of God was always black.

Darth Vader, too.

Known Unknown said...

26% didn't think it was deliberate? Haha.

Oh, it's deliberate.

Perhaps not a statement of race, but certainly as statement of celebrity.

Chip S. said...

They should have gotten an Alfred Hitchcock impersonator. I'd love to hear that voice recount the many times Shelley Moore had hoisted taxes again and again, to vertiginous heights.

sorepaw said...

It's obviously a deliberate imitation of Morgan Freeman.

But what for?

How does one get leverage in a State Senate race in Wisconsin, using a voiceover that's meant to sound like Morgan Freeman?

Bloody weird.

Chuck66 said...

GM, I am actually in the Twin Cities right now (completing some education). And the ads are being bombarded on Twin Cities media. And starting today, crazy Shelly Moore is playing socialist ads on local AM sports radio. A station whose listenership is probably primarily Republican leaning males in Minnesota. A sign that she has wayyyyy to much money to spend.

And I think I have an idea why her short marriage failed. Imagine being married to Ms. "WE BREATHE UNION".

Synova said...

"If it's not meant to sound like Morgan Freeman, why use someone who sounds like a southerner? Normally you would want the accent of the people you are talking to so that they more easily identify with the speaker."

Yah, sure, you betcha. Problem is that the people the ad is talking to sound like Sarah Palin.

And while Sarah Palin sounds like home to me, Morgan Freeman sounds comfortable and warm and fatherly.

And frankly, he doesn't *particularly* sound Black, which I associate with something more urban (and yes, it does seem that even someone without an "accent" is distinguishable as a black person by their voice, even if I can't say why.) His "Southern" is soft enough that it doesn't trigger the rather heavy accent based prejudice mid-westerners have toward the South.

Christy said...

Isn't Kim Kardashian currently suing Old Navy for using a KK look-a-like in their ads?

Titus said...

It depends.

Is it a Republican or Democrat Ad?

kimsch said...

And frankly, he doesn't *particularly* sound Black, which I associate with something more urban (and yes, it does seem that even someone without an "accent" is distinguishable as a black person by their voice, even if I can't say why.)

I agree in many cases. There's a lawyer that is often on FNC who sounds like he's from around NYC or Jersey (I'm from the Chicago area and can't tell the difference between Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, or Jersey - sorry) and there was a lady, on a pain med commerical I think, named Deneen who had a similar accent. If your eyes were closed you wouldn't have a clue.

I've also known many people of African descent who sound just like Americans - not any particular flavor of American...

ignatzk said...

Pardon, but this blog posting is really odd, I almost said 'inane'. Why is this a topic?

Martin L. Shoemaker said...

Why is this a controversy? Who the heck cares? Morgan Freeman is an actor. If your state elections can be swayed by the endorsement of an actor -- whether a true endorsement or not -- then it's time to take away the voting rights of the entire state of Wisconsin. That's the behavior of a state full of children and imbeciles.

Big Mike said...

Wow. 61% of you think that the ad is deceptive. You are nuts.

Titus said...

If it is a democratic ad it is totally deceptive and I hate it and I am outraged.

If it is a republican ad it is completely accurate and this is much "ado" about nothing.

Room With A View.

Teri said...

It's a man with a nice voice and pleasant, calm and laid-back accent and a polite way of speaking. I think it's kind of ridiculous to think that Morgan Freeman is the only man in the universe with those vocal qualities.

If you listen to the actual Morgan Freeman in the third video, the Moore ad narrator does not sound like him at all. Neither does the impersonator, although he does a good job of catching some of Freeman's quirks, which is how impersonators work.

William said...

Well, the ears perk up in the presence of a familiar voice. I think that is why there are the voices of so many uncredited actors in ads. But this can backfire. If this is not really Morgan Freeman, what else about the ad is false.

Chuck66 said...

William, your cost confuses me. You say the ad is false because the person is not Morgan Freeman. Did the Harsdorf people say it was Morgan Freeman? And let's get back to the real scandel. Do you know a balloon was popped in the capital?

sorepaw said...

Like I said, the voiceover sounds so much like Morgan Freeman that it can't be an accident.

I've lived in the South for quite a few years and I've yet to run into anyone who sounds so much like Morgan Freeman.

But what's gained by getting people in a State Senate district in Wisconsin to think that Morgan Freeman is narrating an ad?

Especially when a plausible answer, to someone not otherwise clued in, is that Freeman was paid to do it.

1775OGG said...

I like Morgan Freeman, the actor. He's marvelous in the parts I've seen him play. He's certainly not a historian or a student of our nation's history.

"Live Free or Die" is the motto of New Hampshire.

Massachusetts motto is "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." altogether a rather boring motto, much like the Kennedy's and its senior senator J. Fudging Kerry, that person of disputed French ancestry.

However, I agree with his views on the slavish mentality of some people.

Chip S. said...

But what's gained by getting people in a State Senate district in Wisconsin to think that Morgan Freeman is narrating an ad?

Especially when a plausible answer, to someone not otherwise clued in, is that Freeman was paid to do it.


I wish I'd thought of this point. There's possible signalling value to getting people to think you could afford to hire Morgan Freeman to record your ad in Podunk. It suggests that you're a serious candidate.

Or maybe it signals that you're backed by the Kochs!

Carol_Herman said...

Here, I'm comment #44. And, the ad, plus the comedian who "does" Freeman's voice. Plus, Freeman, himself ... are all gone, now.

So, maybe, showing this crap gave someone enough heartburn ... that they cut off access.

Why not just run the "Daisy ad?" It only ran once back in 1964.

Here? We're gonna have to wait for the recall date to roll around. To see if people go out an actually vote. Or not.

The Crack Emcee said...

"Who in the fuck cares?"

The missing choice.

AST said...

That weirded me out. They should put a note on the screen "voice impersonated." His other voices were very good, but not like the Morgan Freeman.

wv: sureism: the mistaken belief that one is correct all the time

Freeman Hunt said...

The motive is to create the perception of greater production value.

Curious George said...

I can do a great James Earl Jones. I wish they would have called.

virgil xenophon said...

@Freeman Hunt. Perhaps, but I think the primary reason would be "appeal to authority"--a point ST makes upthread. And it's just not in this instance. Notice how many tv commercials have the "reasonable" or "wise" neighbor, bank loan officer, etc., played by a black actor and the bumbling idiot, the guy incapable of planning his own financial future is a white guy (e.g.,in one instance that comes to mind the white guy is clipping his hedge and admitting he's taking potluck on his retirement planning while his black neighbor counsels him on financial planning and long-range thinking; i.e., the ant/grasshopper thing.) This trend is so endemic to the advertising world that it's become a standing joke..almost impossible to NOT notice anymore, it's everywhere in print, signage (poster ads, etc) TV, and of course, as ST alludes, above, the movies as well..

Known Unknown said...

Do you trust Morgan Freeman?

That's the motivation.

Bruce Rheinstein said...

When I make up my mind on important issues I look to Hollywood celebrities for guidance. [/s]

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ron said...

I'd love to see Morgan Freeman narrate Japanese porn.

You should try March of the Penguins. It always works for me.

Heart_Collector said...

"Who in the fuck cares?"

"The missing choice."


And this is why I didnt vote.

wv-lobine- Lobotamy for cows.

Revenant said...

It sounds like a bad Morgan Freeman impression.