REPUBLICAN US PRESIDENTIAL candidate Jeb Bush’s official campaign group used footage filmed in England and Asia in its latest ad, it has emerged.
The ad, posted yesterday and entitled “Bright”, is an effort to present an optimistic and patriotic vision of America, contrasted with the often negative comments of frontrunner Donald Trump.
It features a shot of the sun rising over a farm, with the caption “Choose a brighter path,” and as Bush’s voice is heard saying: “My message will be an optimistic one.”
However, as pointed out by US website Politico, that footage is actually of a field in Cornwall, and available for purchase from Shutterstock, for between $19 and $79.
Dan Talson, the English filmmaker behind the clip, told TheJournal.ie it was “a bit stupid” of the campaign team not to verify where it was filmed.
It’s always interesting to see where my work ends up. That’s the nature of stock video – that we put the clips online with the agencies, and the potential buyer can use the videos for anything.
I assume often they get used for causes that perhaps I wouldn’t support.
As for the clip being of Cornwall – that’s really funny. A bit stupid of the video creator not to check that detail.Maybe it’s hard to find a good farm gate at sunrise in America these days?
He added: “It’s good to know the American Dream is alive and well in a field in Cornwall, England.”
Next, a father and mother are shown sending their kids off to school, while Jeb, as the former Florida Governor increasingly goes by, is heard saying: “That chance, that hope, requires the best that is in us.”
However, the clip was purchased from iStock, and filmed by Monkey Business Images, which is based in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
And perhaps most egregiously, the ad features a clip of workers, in silhouette, climbing up a scaffold, with the caption “America is great.”
That footage was filmed in Laos, according to producer Terry Barksdale, who made the clip available for purchase on the Pond5 website, for $35, and with the description “Workers on top of scaffolding construct a multiple story building in Southeast Asia.”
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Barksdale added:
I find the use of this particular clip somewhat ironic, as these workers have no workplace protection, no union representing them, no protective clothing and were working about five storeys in the air in Vientiane, Laos, a nation not know for its high wages.
The Republican Party is not now, or as far as I know, has ever been an advocate for workers rights (at least in the last century) so perhaps the use of the clip is unintentionally appropriate.
Last October, a conservative group met ridicule after an ad entitled “Republicans are people too,” was revealed to have contained only stock photos, and no actual, verified Republicans.
TheJournal.ie requested comment from Jeb Bush’s “Right to Rise USA” Super PAC (Political Action Committee), but did not receive a response.
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