'The People's Perfume' Sprays Cold Water on the Bernie Bro Narrative

Eau de Bernard, anyone?
By Ken KlippensteinTwitter

Along with a diverse group of volunteers, Schaefer, whose previous work includes directing TV series, shorts, and actual commercials for firms like Geico, created a glossy, hilarious spoof of a perfume commercial for a fragrance that’s all the rage this campaign season: Bérnié.

Schaefer, who is not formally affiliated with Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign, produced the ad as a labor of love for a candidate she believes in.

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The ad begins with the text, “Bérnié—the people’s perfume,” and features a diverse, mostly female cast on a sun-kissed beach and several allusions to the Sanders campaign. Sanders’s gruff voice echoes in the background, barking out his signature policy: “Medicare for All!”

In another reference to Medicare for All, an actor tears up a health insurance invoice for some $4,000. Another actor flips open a Zippo lighter and sets fire to a $67,000 student loan bill, an allusion to Sanders’s student debt forgiveness plan.

But Schaefer says that in making the video, she also just wanted to have some fun. “I think Bernie’s campaign has this jubilance, this joy, this optimism to it; I wanted to create something that felt kind of lighthearted and fun,” Schaefer said.

Frequently derided as humorless or overly “woke” by pundits to their right, the rising generation of leftists in the United States and abroad are embracing this sense of fun to draw in new supporters and engage the ones they already have. For instance, during the 2016 primary, the hashtag #BernieMadeMeWhite began trending as a sardonic way for Sanders’s minority supporters to push back against the stereotype that Sanders supporters are overwhelmingly white. As one black supporter named Leslie Lee tweeted at the time, “Ever since I voted for Bernie, I’ve been bingewatching Friends. #BernieMadeMeWhite.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/bernie-bro-comedy/