Approve Your Own Message

    Another technical milestone in the democratization of political communication has been passed, just in time for the general election campaigns.  Two new web sites make it Amazon-easy for citizens to enter the heretofore exclusive club of political advertisers on television. 

    Suppose you are a concerned citizen who wants to build and sail your own Swift Boat, as it were.  Until now, your best option entailed posting a web video in the hope that it would please the news business (or, as an interim step, bloggers) enough to get free air time.  VoterVoter and SpotRunner Political provide you with software and support that streamlines administrative procedures, assures legal compliance, and shrinks agent fees.  VoterVoter labels the steps, somewhat out of logical order, as “Sponsor.  Create.  Browse.”   You can choose a pre-fab spot starting at $499, or insert your own material, or hire a crew and then upload your own ad.  You can place ads by your wits, or contract for geo-targeting.

    William DeJean, a Chicago dentist who gave the maximum $2300 to Senator Clinton for the primaries, spent another $10,000 to put ads before the eyes of television-watchers in West Virginia and Oregon in the days before those states’ primaries.  He told Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle:

If Tom Hanks can put his fat face on YouTube for Obama, then why shouldn't I be able to put something out there for Hillary?" said DeJean, referring to the movie star's online video endorsement of Obama this month.

    One of these days, a do-it-yourself spot from Dr. DeJean or someone else will make news, in the manner of the “Macaca” video and Mayhill Flower’s report with Obama’s “bitter” remarks.  That will spur imitations, of course.  But my sense is that fewer people will play at television advertising than video tracking and citizen journalism.   Ten grand is not a lot compared with the six-figure buys we generally associate with political television advertising, but it is a lot for one person, or even a small group, to spend on a public good.  Unlike Amazon purchases, you do not get anything consumable for the money you spent at VoterVoter or SpotRunner Political.

    Contrast Dr. DeJean’s trailblazing act with MoveOn.org’s recently concluded contest to devise an ad for Barack Obama.  More than 1,100 entries were submitted; the finalists’ videos garnered at least 100,000 YouTube views apiece, and 5.5 million votes were cast to select the finalists.  The winner, selected by the likes of Ben Affleck and Oliver Stone, will air soon in markets selected by the MoveOn brain trust, funded, of course, with dollars contributed in part from those who participated as contest entrants and voters.   What accounts for the difference?  MoveOn attends to participant motivations.  Its membership expects ongoing solicitations to place ads on television.  MoveOn.org has a brand and community for people to feel a part of, a community which includes like-minded individuals encountered through sponsored discussions and meetings as well as the celebrities who selected the contest winner from the finalists.   Accordingly, millions approved of the winning ad in piecemeal fashion.  They may have experienced less of the satisfaction that autonomous action brings than Dr. DeJean, but they received more palpable rewards.

    Contrast aside, we are talking about different data points on the same transformative curve: MoveOn involving citizens in political advertising by the millions, and VoterVoter and SpotRunner Political perhaps by the thousands by the time November rolls around.  Even hundreds would still be more than the handful of wealthy activists who played in this game heretofore.  And hundreds of DIY-advertisers could affect mass viewing frames, and thus electoral outcomes.

    Underfunded candidates will certainly find the new sites helpful.  As for citizens, whether DeJean’s foray is a harbinger or an anomaly will depend, in the long run, on the social rewards, legal constraints, and campaign results that emerge with the discovery of this newly feasible activity.