WEB AFFAIRS: Thirty seconds to convince the voters, NATION

Xavier Galland
The Nation (Thailand)
07-12-2004
URL: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
November 2 this year, the American people will vote to elect their new
president and, at least in theory, the candidate who receives the largest
amount of votes, rather than the one with the most influential brother
or daddy, will get the job. It is indeed to be hoped that this time round
the president will really be elected - as opposed to selected - and that
he will not have to find his legitimacy in the rubble of any terrorist
attack.
Whoever eventually wins the presidential race, the coming months are
going to be filled with fierce political battles. Some have already started,
including on the Internet.
Explain the creators of the Bush in 30 Seconds website: "As the 2004
election nears, it's crucial that voters understand what President Bush's
policies really mean for our country. And to do that, we need creative
new ads that clearly show what's at stake. That's why we decided to launch
Bush in 30 Seconds, an ad contest that's intended to bring new talent and
new messages into the world of mainstream political advertising. We're
looking for the ad that best explains what this President and his policies
are really about - in only 30 seconds."
The results of this ad-creation campaign can be found on the
competition's website and some of them are really excellent.
Altogether there is a total of 150 ads that can be viewed, but this is
only a fraction of all the entries received by the competition organisers.
To view these short films - with an average size of around 5MB - you will
need to install the free QuickTime plug-in if you don't already have it.

The top two films are called "Child's Pay" and "What are we Teaching
our Children?" The first one shows a number of children working in various
fields like washing dishes in a restaurant, vacuuming a hotel corridor,
supervising a bottle production line, collecting garbage in the street,
repairing tyres in a garage, and working as a cashier in a supermarket,
with a somewhat nostalgic guitar music as the only background sound. The
films ends with the simple question: "Guess who's going to pay off President
Bush's $1 trillion deficit?"
What is often striking in these films is the almost professional
quality they have, especially considering the competition was aimed at
the general public and not at people whose job it is to produce filmed
advertisements.
The time you'll need to download each of these films will vary
depending on the quality of your Internet connection, but if you want to
see some real good quality material it is definitely worth the wait.



WORLDSOURCES ONLINE, INC., A JOINT VENTURE OF FDCH, INC. AND WORLD TIMES,
INC. NO PORTION OF MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE USED IN ANY MEDIA
WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION TO WORLDSOURCES ONLINE, INC.

COPYRIGHT 2004 BY WORLDSOURCES ONLINE, INC.