On Wednesday, President Donald Trump dredged up an interesting fact that had otherwise been lost in time. Little did many of us know, Melania Trump starred in a 2005 Alfac commercial. To put it simply, the ad was pretty bizarre. But over a decade later, her husband is still pretty enamored by it.
It all happened when Trump was at a White House meeting with American workers to talk about how the tax plan would affect them. At one point, an Aflac employee named Michael Porter gifted the president with a pair of socks donning that famous Aflac duck — you know, the one that quacks out "AFLAC!" In response, Trump praised Porter's boss and brought up Melania's commercial from 2005.
Oh good. Your chairman [Dan Amos] I know very well, and he's done a fantastic job. They actually a long time ago hired my wife to do a big commercial. You know that right? An Aflac commercial and I think it was a successful commercial too.
If anything, it's nice to hear that Trump seems proud of his wife. Even so, the commercial was kind of strange — not bad, just odd, in a Bride of Frankenstein kind of way. Filmed in black and white, the opening shot shows a creepy looking castle. The next shot shows a lab with Melania and the Aflac duck strapped to separate tables. In it, a mad scientist swaps Melania's voice and the Aflac duck's voice so that the company's mascot has more "sex appeal." The dialogue goes like this:
Mad Scientist: I shall take the voice of this lovely woman...
Assistant: Mrs. Trump?!
Mad Scientist: ...And put it into this duck!
Assistant: Why?
Mad Scientist: To tell the world the benefits of Aflac with sex appeal!
Assistant: Brilliant, sir!
And there you have it.
The evil scientist's plan seems to work — the duck suddenly grows eyelashes and speaks in Melania's voice, while Melania's body quacks and grows webbed duck feet.
Funnily enough, the commercial was actually pretty significant for both Melania and Aflac. For one, it marked the model's first acting gig.
"I am very excited to make my acting debut in the latest Aflac commercial," she said in a statement to Adweek at the time. "Donald is known for saying 'You're fired'; maybe I will be known for saying 'Aflac.'" Secondly, the ad marked the first time in several years that the company's mascot said something other than "Aflac!" In a statement, according to Adweek, Aflac CEO Dan Amos said:
Following five years of saying only "Aflac," we believe viewers will enjoy seeing the Aflac duck talk. The commercial gives the duck a voice in a very clever and entertaining way. We were pleased that Melania Trump was available to help the duck talk about the benefits of Aflac with glamorous appeal.
Nowadays, Melania certainly isn't known for saying "Aflac" — she's known for being first lady of the United States. And that means she's in the limelight more than ever before. Most recently, people have given themselves the right to speculate on her and Trump's marriage, especially after reports surfaced that Trump supposedly had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. When the first lady broke tradition by both arriving and leaving Trump's first-ever State of the Union separately from him, the rumors piled up. Perhaps Trump was just trying to get on her good side again by complimenting her commercial out-of-the-blue.
Regardless of what people are saying, though, both Donald and Melania Trump have released their own denials. The president's lawyer, Michael Cohen, firmly denied allegations of an affair, while Melania's director of communications slammed rumors of trouble in paradise. Surely, people are now distracted by that bizarre commercial instead.
