Errol Morris uses Apple-like "Switch" ads to show Republicans for Kerry

[Democat]

Errol Morris, the documentary filmmaker who produced Apple Computer's well-known series of ads about discontented PC users who switched to Macs, had a similar idea on how to reach undecided voters. His new advertising campaign features Republicans who voted for President Bush in 2000 explaining why they now intend to vote for Sen. John Kerry.

Scheduled to run during the Republican National Convention later this month, MoveOn.org's political action committee, MoveOnPAC, will air Morris' aesthetically stark 30-second interviews with ordinary citizens about why they won't vote for Bush again in November.

"There's a principle of advertising that if you want to talk to a certain group, it's best to pick someone from that group," said Morris, whose documentary on former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, The Fog of War, won a 2003 Oscar. "If you want to talk to Republicans on the fence, then it's best to talk to Republicans who are on the fence. These are real people who are expressing themselves in their own words."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64621,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

Most of us already know about the upcoming ads, but it's an interesting article to read with more details about how they came about.

[goclark]

1. Thanks for the post

It gives me hope after all these smears against Kerry.

[pss]

2. Speaking of Switchers...

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/index.html

[Cha]

3. I think this is going to be wonderful!

Love the internet!

"Morris' "Real People" ads may rely on traditional Madison Avenue dogma, but they are also a rare example of how the internet can play an integral role in producing a political ad campaign. With a tight schedule and limited funds, Morris said it would have been difficult to locate appropriate voters without MoveOn's extensive e-mail list. (Morris isn't charging MoveOn for his work.)

"It would have been very hard for me to find such a group of people without having the internet," he said. "It has been a very, very strong partner in all of this."

On July 1, with the Republican convention less than two months away, MoveOn sent an online casting call for a Kerry commercial to its 2.6 million members. Within a week, roughly 16,000 replied. Sorting through the database, Morris found 500 who had voted for Bush in 2000, but planned to vote for Kerry.

Morris and his crew in his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, zeroed in on the 500, reviewing their questionnaires and conducting follow-up telephone interviews. Ideally, they wanted the group to include men and women who reflected diverse views, geographic regions, ages and ethnicities."

[AP]

4. Connie Cominsky's switch ad is very moving to me personally.

https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/switchad_winners.html?ad_id=5&id=