Hasta La Creative!

As congress prepares to vote yes or no next month on a nuclear deal with Iran, President Obama is facing a growing amount of skepticism. Many senators have stated they will vote against the bill, although words and actions are hardly the same in politics. With President Obama’s recent statements that those who don’t support the deal also risk going more war, that skepticism is turned into outrage, especially among those whose voices should be heard in this matter, but aren’t: veterans.

As of today, that’s changing. A non-profit organization called Veterans Against the Deal has launched a new campaign from the voice of vets, urging Senators to vote no on the deal. It is currently running in states where some Senators may be on the fence about which side of history they’d like to be standing on when they vote next month.

The first ad features Retired Staff Sgt. Robert Bartlett who was blown up by an Iranian bomb, leaving him disfigured. in addition to that horrible day, he also describes witnessing atrocities at the hands of Iranian terrorists who came into villages, killed children and forced the villagers to do their bidding. “Every politician whose involved in this will be held accountable. They’ll have blood on their hands,” he says. The ad ends with Bartlett urging those in Montana to call Senator Jon Tester and urge him to vote no on the deal.

As far as political ads go, this one eschews the over-the-top theatrics, (except perhaps for the music) and exploitive imagery. No bloody photographs. No crying victims. Instead, Sgt. Bartlett sits quietly on his sofa and tells you what he thinks. By choosing to shine the spotlight on a vet who sustained a casualty a decade ago, the ad also reminds us that Iran’s past actions suggest, the chances of “peace in our time,” are historically slim.

Brittany Creech, a 17 year old high school senior in St. Louis became a viral sensation when she has her senior photos taken at Taco Bell.

remember when I told you guys I was gonna get my senior pictures at taco bell and you thought I was joking pic.twitter.com/GiJK5mNZRf— @MOGirlProbs (@MOGirlProbs) August 7, 2015

Of course Taco Bell got in on the action and retweeted it.

And someone else jumped on the 5 seconds of fame bandwagon.

Of course I went to Taco Bell today… I’m a señior pic.twitter.com/SIra5Za6dE— Lindita Kulla (@LinditaKulla) August 10, 2015

At press time, there has been no outrage from people who don’t want you to eat what you want. And there hasn’t been any parody of this a la also shot on an iphone 6 Even Gregg Turkington, aka Neil Hamburger, the guy who has spent years retweeting “taco bell made me sick,” has been strangely silent.

What’s wrong with the internet? Is Brittany Creech just too authentic for us to deal it? While Taco Bell social and agency of record Deutsch may have found her by combing social media, Creech is in fact a real person (which was the first thing I checked.) A quick search discovered an interview from 2013, when even then she was a huge hit, on the Twitters. So, good for her.

Now Taco Bell should be cool and give her a scholarship for all that earned media.