When “Putin Happens”: What Will You Do, OTO?

by Steve Finefrock – [scriptwriter]

Remember those American Express travelers cheque ads years ago? A crisis was presented for a family away from home, their wallet stolen, the crisis overwhelming their vacation future, when stepped up Karl Malden. Like a fedora-donning yoda, Malden in his trench-coat – a la his recent TV detective role in “Streets of San Francisco” [with young co-star, Michael Douglas] – offered the audience a wise question, as he stared into the camera, coming into the viewers’ living rooms with an intimacy only a beloved TV character can generate:

What would YOU do?

The solution? American Express travelers’ cheques, of course! The on-screen logo coda insisted, “Don’t leave home without it” – and the next commercial racked up for viewing.  This piece of commercial thirty-second entertainment was a mainstay of primetime TV for years, subjecting Malden to many a skit parodying his ad by “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in face putty to replicate Malden’s schnozz.

If the RNC were half as clever as it needs to be, some variation of this ad – or drawing on a more recent, salient version – would be generated in a commercial to ring true, asking Obama The One [OTO] the crucial question: