After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration has made a concerted effort to reach young media consumers in order to spread the word about the necessity of signing up for health coverage. It's been slow going, plagued by site crashes, confusing options and in-state intransigence in places looking to score 2014 and 2016 election points by making the law seem as bad as possible.
But millennials don't watch much traditional TV, and now Barack Obama himself is talking to twentysomethings where they live—namely on FunnyorDie.com, where the leader of the largest military in the world showed up to mock Zach Galifianakis on the latter's popular Web series, Between Two Ferns.
Funny or Die has always supported integrated marketing, and it works because the writers bring their A games to paid content. So the short, which is basically Obama shilling for Healthcare.gov, is still an excellent episode of the show.
"It's fair to say I wouldn't be with you here today if I didn't have something to plug," Obama admits to Galifianakis, who has horrible spider bites that need to be treated immediately. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," Obama tells Zach, who also doesn't take kindly to being ribbed about not looking like The Hangover co-star Bradley Cooper. "Be short, fat and smell like Doritos and try to make it in Hollywood," he admonishes the president.
Anyway, it's surprisingly good. Check it out below.
