With all the talk of an “enthusiasm gap” between supporters of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and questions over whether young voters will turn out Tuesday, appeals from celebrities, comedians and others are piling up online.
The latest: filmmaker Ashley Smith, who also goes by Ashley Innovator, whose video “Mad as Hell” has garnered more than 174,000 Youtube views and counting.
Smith, known for directing Kanye West and DJ Khaled’s video “Way Too Cold,” employed a multi-ethnic cast to recite the famous “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore” speech from the 1974 movie “Network.” The goal: to push back against voter apathy.
“Voter complacency is a major fear of the 2012 elections. Some voters say that the need to vote is gone, as the thrill and excitement of the 2008 campaign has passed,” read a press release for the video. “Yet others feel confident that their candidate is going to win anyway, so their vote is not needed to make a difference.”
Smith, who will be voting in Miami, Florida, says of the famous lines uttered by the character Howard Beale, a newsman in the middle of a mental breakdown, “if those lines could garner the massive call to action that was displayed in that movie, he would call his efforts a whopping success.”