Census Super Bowl Commercial Latest Strike in Unique Culture War

By now we’ve all seen or at least heard about last night’s Super Bowl commercials, which have grown larger than the game itself. They’ve also become a televised battleground for America’s ongoing culture wars, some more obvious than others. Even before the big game, gums were flapping about Focus on the Family’s pro-life plug with Tim Tebow, and the double-standard CBS played when it refused to air the advert for gay dating site, Mancrunch. But then there was another, less-hyped battle happening on the airwaves last night, and it’s been going on far longer than any abortion brawl. It’s also uniquely American: the Census War.

Uncle Sam’s absolutely desperate to get a tally of the nation. And, in an effort to drum up awareness, the government has pumped millions of dollars into a series of Christopher Guest-directed commercials. The series, called “Snapshot of America,” stars comedic luminaries like Jennifer Coolidge, Samantha Bee and that icon of social awareness, the ever green Ed Begley, Jr. Here’s one example:

The government began airing the commercials before the Super Bowl, but, like any other group trying to spread its message, the government took advantage of a golden advertising opportunity: “The Super Bowl is the top-rated and most highly anticipated television event in the U.S.,” census chief Robert Groves wrote on his blog. “An ad running once in the Super Bowl has the potential to reach 45% of adults over age 18.” He also pointed to the “multiplier effect” of pre- and post-game press, like this post itself. But the right, already wary of the census, was not amused by last night’s play, which cost $2.5 million of the entire broadcast campaign’s $133 million budget.

Senators and citizens alike are seeing red over the ads. John McCain, ever hip to technology, used Twitter to insist, “[we] shouldn’t be wasting $2.5 million taxpayer dollars to compete with ads for Doritos!” Blog Critics, meanwhile, sniped, “Just in case you can’t afford to go to the Super Bowl this weekend, it is nice to know that your taxpayer dollars will be there and we have our government to thank.” This hostility stems not just from the fact that government’s spending money on a star-studded campaign, but from the census itself.

The census has only just begun – last month in, of all places, rural Alaska – but it’s already providing plenty of fodder for various cultural arguments. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s became the right-wing’s anti-census leader when she called for a boycott because it was once used to “round up” Japanese people for internment camps, hackers may get at our information and because, at the time, ACORN was involved. Even though the government dropped the scandal-scarred group, conservatives remain at full steam ahead. Some Tea Partiers are also getting in on the movement, like organizer Eric Odom, who worries the government will just plain fuck it up: “I don’t trust them to get anything right. If you want to know my name, my age, where I live, you can find that on my website, but to go any further is out of the realm of acceptability.” Glenn Beck too cited governmental disorganization as a reason to boycott the census.

There are also other, smaller census-related dust-ups, like the debate over the counting of illegal immigrants or the Queer the Census movement, which wants to raise awareness of marriage inequality. And there was that scuffle over the racial classification “negro,” a term older blacks apparently still use. But it’s the right’s rage that amuses me so, because, as Groves, that government agent, quite rightly points out, the Census has always been a cornerstone of our democracy. “In the US Constitution immediately after words that establish the Senate and the House of Representatives, there appears (In Article 1, Section 2) the mandate to do the census every 10 years.” He continues, “The census was the tool to assure that the House of Representatives provided equal representation to all persons.” That fact has definitely occurred to Bachmann, because she’s requesting her constituents complete only the “number in household” question and skip the rest.

But then there’s the economics of it all. In addition to helping divvy up Congressional seats and provide a more efficient government, the Census also helps direct federal funds to the areas that need them the most, like Bachmann’s home state of Minnesota, which faces a $1.2 billion deficit.