Using a selfie-stick, posing in front of his mirror, doodling pictures of his wife Michelle and playing imaginary basketball in his office: these are the things United States President Barack Obama supposedly does when he's alone.
That's the premise at least of a video he has recorded for BuzzFeed, the news, pop culture and listicle website, in a calculated and apparently already successful effort to reach young voters.
Like his controversial appearance on the Funny or Die web series 'Between Two Ferns' with Zach Galifianakis in 2014, Obama participated in the self-mocking BuzzFeed video, published on Thursday in the US, as part of a strategy to sell his healthcare policy to young Americans.
US President Barack Obama captures himself on a selfie stick in this still from the video. Photo: BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed shared the video of Obama on their Facebook page with the message: "How did we get Obama to use a selfie stick? Oh, because he wants you to go to https://www.healthcare.gov/."
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In the video, between winking at himself in the mirror and using a selfie-stick (a long stick you attach a phone or camera to so you can take a picture of yourself from a distance, sometimes viewed as the ultimate vanity product), Obama rehearses a speech in the mirror reminding Americans about the fast-approaching annual deadline to secure health insurance, which falls this Sunday in the US.
Barack Obama shows off a new level of cool in the BuzzFeed video. Photo: BuzzFeed
He also mocks the derisory 'Thanks Obama' meme, muttering the phrase to himself as he struggles to get a cookie inside a glass of milk. He even says "YOLO" - an acronym for "you only live once".
But he isn't above poking fun at himself either. Photo: Supplied
As a political strategy for reaching a wide online audience, it appeared to be paying off within hours. Almost three million people had viewed the video on Facebook within two hours of it going live, and the piece had a huge response on social media, most of it positive.
Obama weathered criticism for his appearance on Galifianakis' web series last year - which was pilloried by politicians and commentators on the right wing of politics for being a waste of his time and an undignified exercise. But the piece was viewed more than nine million times on YouTube alone, while his strategists defended the humorous approach as necessary to"break through".
Galifianakis asked Obama questions like "Is it going to be hard in two years when you're no longer president and people will stop letting you win at basketball?" - before allowing him to eventually plug the policy in the video and repeat the name of the healthcare website several times.
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