The original Star Trek debuted in 1966. The Patty Duke show began broadcasting in 1963. That makes both television series a couple decades shy of retiring and receiving full Social Security benefits. The stars of those shows, however, are more or less at the age where they can start collecting. And they’re definitely at the age where they can star in a lo-fi, low-budget online ad campaign instructing other age-eligible individuals on how they can start collecting, too.
Late last month, the US Social Security Administration released a series of eight promo spots. Those spots feature George Takei and Patty Duke dressed in faux Star Trek garb expounding the benefits and ease of boldly going to SocialSecurity.gov for all your Social Security-related questions and needs.
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The videos are out of this world (sorry!) because:
- Duke sports a set of Vulcan ears.
- Duke and Takei engage in a special kind of tongue-in-cheek, back-and-forth banter usually reserved for late night advertisements from local car salesmen.
- It’s kinda ridiculous to think a government organization developed an online ad campaign for geriatrics.
- It’s kinda sweet to think a government organization developed an online ad campaign that features at least some semblance of cool.
SocialSeucirty.gov’s Boldly Go videos have so far accumulated some 33,000 views. My assessment is that relatively low number speaks more to the social media marketing capabilities of the organization than the content of the videos. These are good! And if George Takei as Spiderman can rack up 150,000 views, there’s no reason Takei and Duke making fun of Captain Kirk shouldn’t break at least a million.
