Go For It, Mike

1984, 4:40 min, color, sound

Go For It, Mike is a parodic music video that re-envisions the Horatio Alger myth of the American Dream via 1950s-style cultural cliches, advertising and Reagan-era media propaganda. Smith's "regular guy" Mike embodies a series of all-American male stereotypes, from the classroom to political candidacy, assuming the roles of college prep, cowboy, train engineer and real estate developer. Set to an ironic jingle that recalls an "Up With People" anthem, this lampoon of Manifest Destiny concludes with Mike riding, like an ironic Marlboro Man, into the sunset.

Director/Camera: Mark Fischer. Music: Mark Bingham, A. Leroy. Lyrics: Michael Smith. Producers: Michael Smith and Mark Fischer, Mike and Mark Productions, for the Electronic Arts Archives and Research Institute, Texas Tech University.