In her latest push for her Let’s Move! Michelle Obama plays a fictional game of ‘Ariana Grande or Eating a Carrot’ with Billy on the Street’s Billy Eichner. Aside from the immediate sell of the video’s context and headline, something particularly strange happened in the video; the first lady slow-danced with Sesame Street’s Big Bird while Eichner sang Aerosmith’s ‘Dont Want to Miss a Thing.’
Internet gold? No question. Embarrassing? Definitely. Ask yourself this: “Would you want to do these things on camera?” Probably not. But it shows the outrageous lengths to which both Obamas are willing to go to reach millenials, whether they’re selling healthy eating or Obamacare.
There’s no question there’s value to the strategy. Million of views have fallen on each of these moments. It’ll be interesting to see if the next White House will live up to these viral stunt standards beyond 2016. In the meantime, we’re happy to have them coming:
Take this for example, Obama sticking out his tongue while making a goofy face for Buzzfeed’s “Things Everybody Does But Doesn’t Talk About, Featuring President Obama”
Then there was the ‘Ew!’ segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from last February, where the First Lady, Fallon and Will Ferrell took turns giving their ‘ew!’ face:
The President was then forced to keep a straight face while Fallon called him ‘The Barack-ness Monster’ while slow jamming the news back in April 2012:
And lest not forgot the First Lady’s potato sack race in the White House on another Fallon segment from February 2012: