New Ad: Matt Damon Channels Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain

Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama star in a new television ad that highlights successes in helping the world's poor and encourages people to do more this election year.

But don't expect to see the presidential candidates' wives. Instead, their words -- and those of others -- flow through the mouth of actor Matt Damon.

"Thanks to everyday Americans who chose to make a difference, millions of lives have been saved in the world's poorest countries," Damon says, opening the spot, titled "Voices," by the bipartisan, anti-poverty group ONE and its Vote '08 project.

His is the only face seen, and he mouths words spoken by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent; Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama; and Cindy McCain, wife of Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.

Damon continues in different voices, focusing on the number of children who can now attend school, people with AIDS who are getting medication and those saved from preventable diseases.

"But there's still more to do," Cindy McCain's voice says.

Hers is followed by a man's asking viewers to join people from different political parties. "Democrats, Republicans and independents," Bloomberg's voice says. "Who are coming together as one," adds Michelle Obama's.

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The ad is part of the ONE project's effort to get the next president to promise to take concrete steps to address world poverty.

The group says both presidential candidates support the cause, but that more can be done.

"We want to remind them that the public is out there eager for them to say more about this," said David Lane, president and CEO of the ONE campaign, told The Associated Press in an interview.

The ONE campaign says it is not endorsing any candidate for president.

The organization is spending $1.8 million to air the ad, beginning Sunday during NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week." It also is scheduled to run on cable television and online until Sept. 4, corresponding to the national political conventions.

On the Net:

* ONE campaign: http://www.ONE.org

Comments

[CrittersRTasty]

Outstanding!
Simple and well done.
Kudos to all involved.

[CrittersRTasty]

Or maybe they could have donated the 1.8 Million to help stamp out world poverty...­.hmmmmm...­.
what to do, what to do......

[jmd12364]

My oh my, another Hollywood twit that think that they matter.

[jkronts]

jmd12364, I'd rather be a hollywood twit that doesn't matter, and who cares, than an anonymous person online such as yourself, who I'm sure is not a twit, but who says uncaring things ....

[northcan]

He is an American isn't he; he can make a difference too. Go Obama 08

[TrooAmerican]

I'm tired of hearing rich people worth tens of millions of dollars, who know 100s if not 1000s of people also worth $millions that make commercials to ask the nearly broke majority populace of the US to give of their wallets to foriegners, while ignoring the millions of americans having to resort to a food pantry or a rescue mission to survive and feed their families or just go hungry because they cant get to any help. Yet while each of these rich people Continues to Build & Grow their Personal Wealth Empire instead of using that money to just Hire some global contractors to go to 3rd world nations and just begin developing infrastructure, facilities, plumbing, water sources, wastewater treatment and alternative energy for them one village at a time.

But instead of that they do photo-ops spending a teensy weensy portion of their monthly incomes on a couple kids like its a popularity competition.

You can do everything cheaper in Africa or Central/south america. If Cindy and her hubby are worth 100 million and 37 million respectively, why dont they each take a few Mill and each pick some villages to build up over there, - helping thousands of people at a time. Its been proven that adequate water supplies, energy supplies, and waste treatment has not only just improved the lives of such peoples, but improved their health, their vitality, their school, work progress, proficiency, morale and happiness.
Why cant they just do that?

[NoElephants]

Come on man, that would make too much sense.

[jkronts]

Why does helping the poor in other countries mean "ignoring" those who need help at home?

What are you, personally, doing to help the poor in the United States? What organizations do you belong to?

What did you do, last week, to help the hungry in the United States?

Granted, among these super-wealthy, they could possibly allocate more of their personal wealth (I mean, who can spend $137 million dollars over the course of their lifetime)? I agree with you. They have options involving their own income,

But let's not forget that we can help people in this country, _and_ overseas. One doesn't cancel out the other. : )

[cholas]

just to give you a smidgen of hope, i am an aspiring actor. like real life actor, not a silly-holl­ywood-not-­amazingly-­talented-a­ctor, and if i ever do become a professional actor (fingers crossed) i plan to give as much money away to the poor and needy all over the world as i can. and i realllly hope that i can.

[Tulka2]

Well... that was weird. Wasn't it? I'm sure it's well meant, but what the hell?

[mosh]

watch it again and again and then have a glass of wine and watch it again and again and if that doesn't work then emigrate to New Zealand.

New Zealand is very nice, if cold, btw. I'll see you there if John McIReallyD­on'tGetItY­et is elected president.

[jmd12364]

Pack your bags mosh, your boy Barry ain't got it. Only don;t make threats like Alec Baldwin.. leave come NOV ok.

[Jason357]

That's the difference between artsy types and everyone else. You have to go to the edge to be artistic, do stuff nobody's done before. It's called being creative for all of you Stepford Wives types.

[mosh]

Thanks, Jason, now I get it.

[Craniumdude]

This ad makes no sense. No one seeing it will recognize any of the voices as being bi-partisan. Most will only recognize Damon but won't have a clue of what the ad is really about. Plus it would have been more prudent to spend that 1.8 million on actually helping others!

[mosh]

Screw bipartisan. It is time we hold the real criminals accountable. And, believe me, they are out there.

[firelord5000]

Matt Damon's the man, if he can't do it, no one can!
He should run for president, cause he is def more useful then McCain/Obama.

[mosh]

How old are you??

Probably not young enough to spout that crap.

It's time you put your nose into a book and give up the tv and video for a while, like through the next election. Though I must admit, your instincts are good. But, boy, are you ignorant.

Ignorant simply means without information. So, assuming you are not mentally challenged, you should be able to catch up in a year or two.

[jkronts]

why blame firelord5000 for being young?

he didn't say anything offensive or stupid; it seems you're putting a lot of projection onto him/her

maybe he simply doesn't like either frontrunner ....

anonymous flaming brings down discourse everywhere ....

[KoolBreez]

Damon's hot..

[mosh]

So's Barack.

[mtredstar7]

It seems to me that continuity outweighs change in America. Change seems to occur over a 30 year period whereas continuity occurs every four years. If this premise is accurate then Obama may be too ahead of the curve for America's average citizen, who will only react quickly to change in a time of crisis.
American's are too accustomed to the God of comfort. Give them their their football, beer, NASCAR, American Idol and church. America is not a very progressive nation and this is not going to be America's century.

[realityczech4u]

Not true of all Americans. I love change. I have a 2 gallon glass jug full of it.

I don't think any rational, aware person would argue that it will be America's century. I see no prospect or our being able to re-industrialize this nation and without industry there can be no true prosperity-just schemes and scams and more and more debt piled upon debt. So I am doing all I can to "conserve" what I have.

[mosh]

Every four years?>? Barack??

Time to crack a history book and figure out where the black man/woman has been for the last, oh, say, four centuries.

Yikes.

[rshrink]

While this is a nice idea, I see no chance of anything good happening for the poor if McCain is elected. McCain focuses on his special interest groups who fund him and if they didn't, he could not even be in a position to be running for president still. If McCain was talking straight talk, he would be saying, "I am going to continue the neocon ways of Bush/Cheney and look out for my wealthy comrades, so the rest of you can struggle on just as you have."

[mosh]

Ya think?

[Einstein44]

It works like a charm ..I hope that the people are listening to the MESSAGE...We definitely need to work together as ONE..

[TRWSEW]

Don't you ANGRY people ever lighten up?

Your constant bickering makes it sound like your being eaten up by hate.

Can you laugh?

[Kenji]

Not until November...

[JaseAllen]

Duh-huh. It's similar to the sound Republicans were making when they tried to impeach Clinton for lying in a deposition. Bush has done a lot worse than that, but I don't hear many Republicans with near the same anger.

[mosh]

I guess it's hard to laugh with a broher/sis­ter/son/da­ughter/unc­le/aunt/ne­ighbor/you get my point perhaps in Iraq!

While you sleep peacefully in your bed my friends and family sleep on edge wondering what will happen next.

Wake up!

Who do you think is fighting over there for you??

Alas, no one, right?

[jkronts]

agreed, TRWSEW; too much anger in our world

and the Web is a great place to vent on others who don't deserve it ....

those who want to make a difference may just need to get off the computer, and join an organization such as ONE .... not ONE per se, but maybe a political group .... work for change, rather than indulging in negativity and attacks online ....

[HC4BO]

New Pro-Obama book coming out soon ...

Digg It :

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Obama_s_Challenge_by_Robert_Kuttner_Chelsea_Green

Pre-order at Amazon at Reduced Price ...

[HHarvey]

Matt Damon for president! LOL!

For those of you undecided you could always write his name in.

[alieninvader]

Um, I like Matt Damon, but...why?

[maori]

That was just creepy.