MeidasTouch Archives: The Videos That Started It All

Brett Meiselas walks you through some of the original MeidasTouch videos from early 2020.

Hi MeidasMighty:

Brett Meiselas, co-founder of MeidasTouch here.

I thought it could be fun to pull some of the original MeidasTouch videos that started it all back in March/April 2020 and provide a little backstory from what I remember while creating them.

I credit these three videos in particular with our initial ascent and virality.

For those who don’t know, my background prior to starting MeidasTouch with my brothers was in film, television, and digital media production. So as my brothers and I watched those insane Trump press conferences at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, instead of continuing to scream into the void, I did the one thing I knew how to do: create videos to get our thoughts out into the world.

So without further ado, here are the three videos that help get MeidasTouch off the ground:

Are You Better Off?

Our first breakthrough video was one we called “Are You Better Off.” It uses Ronald Reagan’s famous line from his debate performance against Jimmy Carter when he asked the American people: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” As a Democrat, I never imagined that an ad I created featuring Ronald Reagan would be what began my foray into politics, but here we are. When I made this, we had no money, no connections to the space, and no clue how to make a political video. Did we need a voiceover artist? Should we be following a specific style? Ultimately, these limitations ended up working to our advantage, as we let Reagan’s words become the voiceover as we showed the audience images depicting the disaster of the Trump presidency. I honestly could not believe this idea had not been done when we made this video. We posted this on social media and then a bit later, I recall making lunch and coming back to my phone to see tons of notifications. The video was already going viral. The voiceover style ended up becoming a mainstay of our videos. Why use cheesy voiceovers when you could use people’s own words to drive a message? With Trump’s endless lies and projection, we employed this technique through a majority of our videos.

The Snake

One of the most peculiar parts of Trump’s stump speech in 2020 (though he has kept it going at events to this day) was his reading of the lyrics to the song “The Snake” by Al Wilson. Trump used the lyrics of this song the fear monger about immigrants, comparing them to a snake saved by a woman who is allowed into her home and bites her. When I listened to Donald Trump read these lyrics at his event, I couldn’t help but notice it sounded exactly like he was describing himself. I stopped everything I was doing, ran to my computer, and started editing. For whatever reason, this video came together quicker than just about any video we’ve created, despite being more intricate than most. Honestly, it may have taken me less than an hour, but I do lose track of time when I make these things. I kept thinking of more ways the lyrics related to Trump, and ended up creating this movie-trailer style piece using Trump’s words to expose the extend of his threat to our country. One of the wild things is how everything in this video remains relevant to this day, and in many areas, there are newer and more horrifying examples that could be included. Hm, maybe we need a sequel? I showed this to my brothers Ben and Jordy right when I finished the edit and I remember they were instantly enthralled by the piece. You can watch it here!

Patriotism is Bipartisan

One of our next videos that went viral in early 2020 was called “Patriotism is Bipartisan.” From the beginning of Meidas, despite our own political affiliations, we believed that the values we were fighting for had nothing to do with political labels. That’s something that remains in our DNA to this day, and it’s been great to see the Harris-Walz campaign embrace this philosophy as well as they build a big tent coalition including folks like Liz Cheney. This video features Republicans giving their unfiltered feelings about Donald Trump, and then flips it and shows those same Republicans talking about their admiration for President Biden. Many of the Republicans featured in this video have since chosen Trump over our democracy, but their message in this video rings true. This video was a collaborative efforts between me and my brothers, as was nearly every video we made, with us going back and forth on which clips we wanted to use and narrowing it down so that the message could be delivered in under 90 seconds.

These videos truly set the stage for what MeidasTouch would soon become, and what it ultimately evolved into. I hope you enjoyed me sharing some of the background behind creating them. If you did, let me know, and I will dig in the archives and share the stories behind some of our other favorites!

As always, if you are interested in supporting our work, please consider a paid subscription here on Substack to help keep us going!

Thanks all and talk soon!