MoveOn Launches Obama Ad For MTV And Comedy Central

MoveOn.org has launched a new pro-Obama ad targeting young voters that will air on MTV and Comedy Central.

The ad is the first campaign advertising to run nationally on Comedy Central. Tony Fox, a spokesman for the network, told the New York Times "he did not know why the cable channel had not accepted political advocacy advertising before, but said of the decision to do so now: 'Political advertising in an election year is good business.'"

He also said that this particular spot, produced by members of MoveOn.org Political Action, the liberal action group, was humorous and would be a good fit with Comedy Central's young, politically sophisticated audience. It is entitled "It Could Happen to You" and features Rider Strong, the former star of "Boy Meets World," and Amber Benson of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

MoveOn will spend $150,000 to run it for one week on Comedy Central and MTV, which had not accepted political advertising for more than a decade but reversed that policy a month ago. Both MTV and Comedy Central are owned by Viacom Networks, which has generally weathered the current advertising downturn better than some of its competitors.

Here's the ad:

More from MoveOn's press release:

"It Could Happen To You" was the winner for "funniest video" in MoveOn's recent "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad contest. The ad was produced by and features Rider Strong, former star of "Boy Meets World." Also in the ad is Amber Benson, best known as Tara Maclay on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

MoveOn's ad is in part a response to the airing of an anti-Obama ad from a conservative group last week, also on MTV.

"Young people are naturally progressive, tech-savvy, and hopeful people, so it's no wonder they are becoming MoveOn members" said Peter Koechley, a former editor of the Onion and co-director of MoveOn's youth outreach efforts. "In the next 99 days, MoveOn.org is going to spend a whole lot of time and money making sure that the trend we saw in the primaries of doubling and tripling turnout among young voters continues into November for Barack Obama."

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MoveOn.org has almost a million members under 35 and aims to add another 500,000 through the course of this election. MoveOn's young voter outreach efforts include:

-- Developing a new model for online advertising focusing on persuasion. With TV capturing dwindling numbers of young people, MoveOn is committed to advertising where young people are: on Facebook, MySpace and other sites popular with young people on the internet as well as through search ads.

-- Developing a new suite of online political tools to continue to lead the way in on-line organizing.

-- Developing a new social network canvassing GOTV model. Young people are harder to target using traditional methods of knocking on doors, making phone calls, and sending mail. MoveOn will leverage online social networks to turnout young voters. We're building online tools to allow our members to register and then turnout out their friends and peers (for example, www.votepoke.org).

Here's the conservative ad that's already running on MTV:

Comments

[Sargoth]

I thought it was cute. It stands apart from the usual political ads I see. I think people will remember this more than just another ad about policy or smears.

[illinoisan]

Ineffective because it preaches to the choir. What's needed are serious messages aimed at older voters that calls upon their sense of responsibility without preaching.

[Cos1]

It is effective. Older voters are not the audience for Mtv and Jon Stewart. The add gets straight to the point and recalls something that most youth are already familiar with. This ain't your grandfather's election.

[CtJean]

Off thread and redundant for those who saw this post all day but

O's birthday is August 4th

He will be 47

Let's give him the biggest $$ day in history

Please pass this on

[firewmn]

*
Hey, I'll donate $47.00 big ones for the future president's birthday..!
*

[3rdCitizen]

Okay, I loved the ending. But then, I'm nearing 50 and I grew up seeing the "this is your brain" anti-drug ad about a zillion times, so this strikes me as an inspired send up. I have no idea how it will play to its target audience. (How old are the people who run MoveOn anyway?)
No one can accuse this of being mean-spirited.

[ebethgay]

I'm a little younger than you (37 on August 4th - send money and blow out my previous birthday cash total of $200), and I also like the ad because of the old brain on drugs ads. I always liked the t-shirt that had a picture of bacon and eggs that said "This is your brain on drugs with a side of bacon."

And what's warmer or fuzzier than a baby chick? I am infected with hope!

[SayLessDoMore]

Ad ain't awful, but if that's all there is . . . . . . .

My mother-in-law recently asked me: "Hope? What's that mean?"

This is a smart woman who despises W. and isn't much enamored of Johnny Mac, either. But she, like an enormous chunk of middle America, has never heard of the blogosphere, has basic cable, and still thinks you get your news from network TV or the paper. SO . . . she also hasn't heard more than sound-bites from Obama's speeches and is really asking:

"How is Barack Obama actually hoping to improve America, and why isn’t anybody telling me?"

Fair or not, she and others -- including, we'd better realize, a lot of Comedy Central and MTV'ers -- need two or three, or four, or seven, short declarative sentences that connect substance to the theme. I tried to do my part, but I found it harder to extemporize than I might have thought reasonable.

So, if anybody's paying attention: We need some 30-second "Hope means . . ." spots. And we need 'em on network TV. My mother-in-law is waiting.

Let's hope MoveOn pays attention to HuffPo.

[Amennyc]

dumb. lame. move on, should know better. would have been funnier to tie in what came first the war (egg) or the surge(chick).....

[poco767b]

'Worse than a flip flopper' another classic line written in crayon by a drunken 3rd grader.

[protagonia]

Written BY drunken 3rd graders FOR drunken 3rd graders. The entire party and it's adherent followers are a bunch of cruel children.

[Dunsmuir]

I think this is a really cool ad for young voters. They'll get it!

[rextrek]

AGREED...as a 48yr old man..I see / hear what the message is....vote McCain and see America's Demise. OBAMA 08

[donaldw6]

My palms get sweaty when I'm about to look at a MoveOn ad, all things considered, but this one's not bad. It's way better than most of what's on Comedy Channel, so go for it!

[AlwaysFairDem]

Need a better AD...I thought it was a drug or STD related AD you usually see in AOL video before the actual news coverage, etc.. Come on Moveon, you can do better than this...

[neocon666]

I loved the end where they held up the egg and then the bird. Of course in McCain's case, "this is your brain on GOP" would have resulted in the egg being shown to have been hard-boiled.

[ShamusNYC]

Cute, but would like to see something more hard-hitting - pointing out the hypocrisy of the McB side and aggressively responding (in a way that O can't) to McB's negative ads via counterpoint - i.e., McB lacks the judgement to lead (Iraq war vote) or the whole off-shore drilling things (pandering, not even supported by Arnold), or his economic advisors getting rich while the housing market suffers (Phil G is a vice chair of UBS) or...

Well, I think you get it.

[doctorwang]

......or the myriad of flip flops he's undergone in the last year. This ad is pathetic and should only be shown on Nickeleon or the Disney channel.

[Marlyn]

"should only be shown on Nickeleon or the Disney channel."

That's a good plan. Indoctrinate the children.

[Wildcatdiva]

I loved it, made me laugh out loud.

[Marlyn]

The tone of this ad is hostile. I didn't like it, but I'm old, and anyway I don't like much that TV has to offer.

[Nolewoman]

Hostile? Hope is hostile? I am old too and I liked it.

[doctorwang]

Sugary perhaps. Hostile? No way.

[Tommygun264]

The MoveOn ad has been on YouTube for quite some time and it still makes me chuckle. The anti-Obama ad is dull and humorless - it's almost a parody of itself. I can't see it running with any effectiveness on MTV.

[patrickjkiger]

That anti-Obama commercial has about as much chance of resonating with under 25s as McCain has of doing a 720 on a skateboard. I'm happy to see those wingnuts wasting their money that way.