Reenacting and Commercials

Because the reenacting in cartoons was such a hit I’ve decided to do a little blog about depictions of reenacting in commercials (believe it or not there aren’t a lot of references to reenacting in movies).  There are really only two.  Both are meant to be humorous, and both resonate with reenactors in particular ways.  So here they are in chronological order…

Ebay commercial:

This commercial is pretty interesting.  Of course ebay is implying that you can get anything you want from their website, unfortunately you really can’t get much reenacting stuff from ebay.  Essentially someone out there is wondering “where do they get that stuff?” ( answered here )  and came up with this.  There are some great reenacting moments in this commercial:

1)      Every reenacting event involves the sentence “Where did you get that ____?”  or “Wow, that’s a great _____! Look at that_____ (often hand sewn button holes)” or “That is some really good fabric that jacket (or what have you) is made out of.”  Occasionally this will go even farther into something like “That is a real campaign shirt” (meaning its dirty as shit and looks like something a real soldier would have worn while marching twenty miles a day).  Usually these conversations will then evolve into a discussion of the research gone into the article of clothing. 

2)      On the reverse side of the coin there will always be someone (thank God) who will call people on their inaccuracies.  This commercial depicts an extreme example but just imagine instead of being off by 80 some years, you get called out for wearing a jacket that wasn’t used until 1864 and you’re supposed to be portraying soldiers in 1863. 

3)      There will always be reenactors who just don’t care and will charge into battle on a metaphorical segway.

Geico commercial:

Another great commercial!  This time it depicts the sole reenactor in a unit who just wants to have an authentic event but is troubled by those who just want to go on a camping trip with a Civil War theme.  He even bemoans the bad reputation their group has acquired, something that is all too true.  This kind of activity would probably get you shunned by the reenacting community (at least it should).  Reenactors though tend to be the most lax about authenticity at the end of the day, when sitting around the camp fire.  This is often when the beer will come out but in the morning things are always back to business.  I must point out though that not all groups and not all events allow for these kinds of breaks in authenticity.  I should also confess that this year at Gettysburg we were joking about having a pizza delivered to our camp out on the battlefield, it didn’t happen though and there were no anachronisms around that fire.  Instead, like real Civil War soldiers, we went into town for libations and relaxation when the day was done.

I must note that this commerical only played during the world's WORST documentary about Gettysburg, which was apparently filmed in South Africa.