The White House released an AI-generated promotional video on Monday, August 3, that directly parodies the iconic Nicole Kidman AMC Theatres advertisement from 2021.
Posted to social media with the caption “Silence your cell phones. Sit back. Welcome to the Golden Age,” the clip borrows the structure, orchestral score, and campy tone of the original AMC commercial to promote the current administration’s MAGA agenda. The video opens on a reflection of the White House in a puddle, then follows an AI-generated figure in a Make America Great Again hat wandering the grounds of the Washington, D.C. landmark.
What’s in the Video
A narrator riffs on the original ad’s script throughout, delivering lines such as “We come to this place for MAGA” and “A country where we don’t do heartbreak — we do victory.” The AI-generated man eventually enters a White House screening room, where he watches clips of President Donald Trump. Along the way, he passes a painting depicting Trump raising his fist following the 2024 rally assassination attempt. The video closes with “MAGA” appearing on screen in AMC Theatres’ signature font, as the narrator declares, “Welcome to the Golden Age.”
The Ad It’s Parodying
The original Kidman commercial debuted in September 2021, produced to draw audiences back to movie theaters following COVID-19 shutdowns. Kidman’s earnest, melodramatic performance and the ad’s atmospheric staging made it an unexpected viral phenomenon that quickly became meme fodder across the internet. In 2022, Nicole Fineman impersonated Kidman in a Saturday Night Live sketch built around the spot. The following year, Jimmy Kimmel referenced it during the 95th Academy Awards. Most recently, the final season of The Boys spoofed the ad, casting Firecracker in the Kidman role for a fictional VMC Theatres commercial promoting the show’s Vought corporation.
The White House video arrives roughly five years after the original ad’s cultural peak, leaving open the question of what prompted the administration to reach for a half-decade-old internet reference on a Monday in 2026.
