Obama has done at least two commercials/tv ads as President. Has any other president done them?

[jenmito]

He has such a good voice for commercials, too. Doesn't he?

[PretzelWarrior]

1. any for General Motors?

He could do like Iaccoca used to do and get on TV to sell cars. "Our cars are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America."

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

17. I like this idea. He'd sell some cars.

[rvablue]

2. He hasn't done any TV commercials since becoming President.

If you are talking about the clean coal commercial and the pro-Sotomayor commercial that are currently running on TV, they are independent organizations that use footage of the President that's in the public domain.

So, he hasn't "done" them, someone is just using audio/video/pics of him in their own independently funded and distributed advertising.

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. I find the "clean coal" ad especially disturbing

Especially since there is no such thing as clean coal.

[blogslut]

14. He didn't "do" that commercial

The clean coal peeps took bits of his speeches and put them in an ad. I'm sure they have some sort of "fair use" excuse for it. But president Obama didn't "do" a commercial for them.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. Yeah, I know.

And I find it in horrendously bad taste that the coal industry would do that. But it also troubles me that Obama actually gave them words they could use. He was probably speaking of the hypothetical possibility of such a thing existing some day (or maybe not, I really don't remember at this point in what context he mentioned it)

I could probably take speeches from any former president and edit selected pieces from them to advertise any number of agendas, but it used to be frowned on in this country to do that in commercials.

Of course it also used to be illegal to advertise prescription drugs, or outright lie in "news" coverage, so go figure.

[alwysdrunk]

3. No he hasn't.

And he won't until the re-election campaign. No president would.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Have you seen his Dave and Buster's spot?

He seems so natural! I hear he's going to guest on CSI next season too!

He's not done any commercials. Sorry for the snark, but geez, he's the President of the United States, not Billy Mays.

[jenmito]

8. Snark noted.

[alwysdrunk]

9. LOL!

Billy Mays... :)

[alsame]

6. He's done at least two PSAs for USAservice,org, which I've

seen. They are very powerful and effective.

[jenmito]

7. Thank you.

I agree.

[alsame]

10. The one in which he says "You may ask - Where is my

moon, my levee, my dream?" is very moving.

And no, I don't remember any other Presidents doing spots like this while in office. Then again, the Clinton years were a while ago, so I may have just forgotten about them.

[jenmito]

11. Yes! It's his voice and then he looks straight into the camera during the

final remarks.

[alsame]

12. Yep, that's it. It's extremely well done. eom

[Sebastian Doyle]

16. Chimpy did radio ads for them, but I'm not sure if he did TV ads.

It was bad enough that the radio versions played on my "liberal" talk radio station :evilfrown:

[Bluenorthwest]

13. To be kinder about it

What he may have done, as almost all Presidents do at some point, is make Public Service Announcements, or PSAs. These are not commercials, as they do not sell product. It is a vital if somewhat arcane difference. To me it is a huge difference, but that is just industrial damage!
And yes, he does have a great voice for that sort of thing, and I bet he will speak for PSAs both in office and in the future.