"Frozen" (also called the "Ballad of Dannie Goeb") was a

political advertisement In politics, campaign advertising is propaganda through the media to Social influence, influence a political debate and, ultimately, voting. political consulting, Political consultants and political campaign staff design these ads. Many countri ...

issued by incumbent

David Dewhurst David Henry Dewhurst (born August 18, 1945) is an American politician, businessman, and attorney who served as the 41st lieutenant governor of Texas from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Texas Land Commissioner from 1 ...

's campaign on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

during the 2014 primary runoff for

Lieutenant Governor of Texas The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive officer, executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the United States, U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the wor ...

against Dan Patrick. Dewhurst, the three-term lieutenant governor, faced primary challenge from

Tea Party A tea party is a social gathering event, typically held in the afternoon, featuring the consumption of tea and light refreshments. Social tea drinking rituals are observed in many cultures worldwide, both historically and in the present day. A ...

favorite Dan Patrick. During the primary, Patrick triggered a runoff between Dewhurst and him by only capturing 41% of the vote. "Frozen" consisted of an edited version of Patrick, dressed like Elsa, singing a parody of "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

". The lyrics to the parody claim that Patrick changed his name to avoid past debits. Dan Patrick's campaign denied the allegations and release its own ''Frozen'' themed advertisement called DewFeed. DewFeed consisted of a webpage with

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

s from ''Frozen'' with captions extolling Patrick's conservative virtues and attacking Dewhurst.

Background

Between 2003 and 2015,

served as the 42nd

. During his three terms as lieutenant governor, Dewhurst helped pass the controversial

2003 Texas redistricting 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

plan as well as "business friendly" legislation. In 2012, Dewhurst ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

and lost in a primary runoff to

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

. In 2014, Dewhurst, who was seen as an establishment Republican, faced a primary challenge against a

-backed candidate, Dan Patrick. In the 2014 Republican primary, Patrick triggered a runoff election by only gathering 41% of the vote; Dewhurst gathered 28% of the vote. During the weeks leading up to the runoff election, Dewhurst ran a negative campaign that included "Frozen" and " Lt. Gov. You've Gotta Love". Dewhurst failed to win the runoff-primary for a fourth term as lieutenant governor.

Synopsis

"Frozen" consists of a roughly animated version of Patrick lip-synching to a parody of "

". The lyrics to the parody centered around Dewhurst's challenger Dan Patrick. They claim that Patrick changed his name from Dannie Goeb to Dan Patrick to escape scrutiny of a bankruptcy. The first third of the advertisement depicts Patrick, dressed like Elsa, floating in a winter scene. In the second section, Patrick floats around a static image of the

Texas State Capitol The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the U.S. state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 188 ...

. In the third section the music is played on top of stock footage of Patrick.

Reactions

Dewhurst's campaign

David Dewhurst personally did not find "Frozen" entertaining, but released it anyway at the prompting of his younger family members and campaign staff. Dewhurst commented that the advertisement "was not intended to be disrespectful" to Patrick. One Dewhurst staffer referred to "Frozen" as "just like a lighthearted thing."

Patrick's campaign

In response to the advertisement, Dan Patrick's campaign released a series of

s from ''Frozen'' on a site called DewFeed, a play off of

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

. The Patrick campaign used this site to highlight a series of arguments about how he was a better candidate for lieutenant governor. One text and image combination tries to point out that Dewhurst was not concerned about security along the

Mexico–United States border The international border separating Mexico and the United States extends from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. It is the List of ...

until Patrick brought it up in the Senate. In another, Patrick refers to Dewhurst as a "moderate without conservative footing". In addition to DewFeed, Patrick's campaign pointed out that the allegations that he changed his name to avoid past debit was false. Patrick originally used Dan Patrick when he was a sports broadcaster.

Sources

External links

* {{Frozen 2014 in American politics 2014 in Texas 2014 works Frozen (franchise) Political campaign advertisements Politics of Texas Works based on films 2014 YouTube videos 2010s television commercials