That's AdAge's Ken Wheaton's take on the latest version of the "Will.i.am" video touting Barack Obama:

It's one thing for a stadium full of drunk people to shout out the name of a rock band. I'll even give a pass to people who've worked hard in a campaign getting riled up during a victory speech. But it's another thing entirely to use a politician's name, being chanted over and over again, as the backdrop for a slick and empty-headed production.

Wheaton goes on to lard his post with caveats, many of which I can accept -- the approach here will probably be quite effective with its intended audience and yes, some of the imagery is quite stunning.

So was "Triumph of the Will," a gorgeous visual symphony set against one of the most horrific back stories in history. But as is often the case, it's the style, not the history, or the inescapable message, that still draws people (including soul-less ad types) to the form:

What really gets my goat (and, really, I'm down to my last goat, so please stop), is that Will.i.am seems to be slightly ignorant of pop history as well. I'm not the first to make this comparison, but didn't he see Living Colour's video for "Cult of Personality"? (Thanks, Sony, for not allowing us to embed that one.)

But maybe it's just this sort of chanty, fascist-appearing (and sounding) messaging is hot right now. After all, Under Armour's Super Bowl spot -- from the chanting, to the whiff of genetic superiority, to the red and black colors -- looked like little more than something from the History Channel's 1932 reel with a multicultural cast thrown in.

It's almost a truism that the first person to shout "Hitler" in a political race loses (ask Jerry Kilgore). But what happens when a group of people, in an effort to pump-up their candidate, dips into a quasi-fascist imagery well to make their point? Or for that matter, a clothing company, a car manufacturer, or even a peddler of kids' cereal?