New MoveOn Ad Blasts Insurance Companies: "They Kill People Each Year" (VIDEO)

As the health care battle moves to the airwaves during the August recess, the progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org has likened insurance companies to sharks, labeling them "the real predators" who "kill people each year."

The organization views the fierce ad, released in preparation for the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, as "an opportunity to pull the attention of popular culture onto the pressing issues of our time like health care reform," said Ilyse Hogue, MoveOn's director of political advocacy and communications.

The spot, which features sharks swimming in the sea, hammers insurance companies for "denying coverage while profiting billions." It specifically urges the inclusion of a public option, the component of the legislation Republicans and insurance companies most vehemently oppose.

The goal is "to remind the overwhelming majority of Americans that if we don't win, the predatory insurance industry is going to continue to govern their lives," Hogue told the Huffington Post.

A part of the strategy is to combat conservative disinformation. "If Americans really have to choose between insurance industry status quo running their health care and the Obama plan, they'd overwhelmingly choose the Obama plan," said Hogue.

This ad echoes the forceful criticism against insurance companies coming from President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Obama has worked to frame the debate as a struggle between public interest and corporate interests, saying "those who profit from the status quo ... will stop at nothing to block reform." Pelosi recently called insurance companies "the villains" in the health care crisis.

While MoveOn has not finalized its ad purchase yet, the group pledges to "keep the heat" on Republicans, as well as the Democrats they believe "are playing politics with the health care crisis," said Hogue.

Watch the ad:

Transcript:

They are enormous and powerful. They prey on our weaknesses, trying to separate the healthy from the sick. Their strategy is to confuse and exhaust their victims. And they kill people each year by denying coverage while profiting billions. During shark week, let's take on the real predators: health insurance companies. Call Congress, tell them: don't put insurance profits before health care. Support a real public option.

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Comments

[plsps]

I wish it could be published or shown at every 6:00 o'clock news broadcast!!

[MidwestHeart]

I totally agree with Lovepolitics2008. The psychological games work on people who are out of touch with 'reality'. They are not even in touch with their own suffering. How could someone think it was a good idea to protest against health insurance reform when they just lost their own insurance?

[Chip W]

Here's an ad from the Family Research Council. They're part of the "They're Taking Our Freedoms" movement.

http://www.frcaction.org/takeover

[NoblesseOblige]

Excellent ad!

[ohmetoo]

Excellent, top drawer! Call Congress 202-225-3121 and tell them how you feel about the health care industry and the future.

[BBryan]

:-D Truly excellent ad! It's accurate and fun to watch!

[whoknew42]

YES - I SUPPORT THIS MESSAGE!!

[eyelashviper]

My first donation to any organization in a while. This is a brilliant move!

[biabouman41]

Well done and to the point.

[imsosure]

Of course they kill people, they have made themselves evil money grubbing obstacles to living or dying in America, it's pathetic.

[SouthPrairie]

So true. I can't believe that people feed their faces and their families denying coverage and getting bonuses for shaving of $$ that they would have had to pay.

[Artemis34]

Quite right. I hope this ad runs everywhere, but probably CNN will refuse to air it.

[birbal]

Aside from the fact that sharks are overfished and necessary within our food chain and that I think the ad should have used a more evil representative, excellently on the mark. I just chipped in my bit to MoveOn.org myself. Big pharma and the insurance companies without question need to be taken to heel. However sharks are actually good for us and the environment, whereas the insurance companies are really just pure evil.
I have to say I'm not real happy with the White House striking a deal to prohibit cost reductions on meds as well as the importation of cheaper meds from Canada and the like, but knowing Obama, I'm sure he has something planned...

[ClassyT]

I just donated to MoveOn earlier today. This was part of the email message I received from them:

This month could decide the future of health care and clean energy in America—and we're already one week in. If you've been sitting on the sidelines, now's the time to get involved. Talk to your neighbors, go to a town hall meeting—and today, please chip in $35 to support our work:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/august.html?id=16748-9190535-IX2bF.x&t=2

You can donate at the link above, or go to MoveOn.org

[TN60]

I donated this morning, also. I reccomend that everyone who can, at whatever they can, support MoveOn.org. The above is a good commercial and it needs airing as much as possible.

MoveOn helped get President Obama elected and I'm all for them.

I actually like the Gen. Betray-Us ad in the NYT that had the (R)s foaming at the mouth LOL

[PatsyT]

Excellent Work Everyone should contribute to MoveOn to support this direction!
How about showing up at Town Halls with giant stuffed sharks ala SNL Land Shark.

[WeCanDoMore]

Great idea!