Empowering The Grassroots-- Do Your Own Ad Campaign

I was on the phone with Alan Grayson a few days ago and he told me that he feels the campaign he so painstakingly put together has degenerated into a quest for money to run ads on television, instead of an opportunity to talk with the people of Orlando about how government can help to improve their lives. There are many ways to approach running a campaign but almost every candidate and staffer I talk to says, no matter how idealistic it starts, it always ends with TV ads. Alan's ground game probably won him the primary-- but his startling TV ads sure didn't hurt.

Today Blue America, with our partners at SaysMe.TV, is launching a new application that can make everyone a political media consultant-- or, better yet, a replacement for a political media consultant. Start by picking a media market:

Cincinatti- Vic Wulsin
Miami- Annette Taddeo
Washington, DC- Judy Feder
Detroit- Gary Peters
New York- Dennis Shulman
Seattle- Darcy Burner
Philadelphia- Sam Bennett
Charlotte- Larry Kissell (should be up Monday)
Los Angeles- Debbie Cook or Russ Warner (should be up Tuesday)

Then pick which ad you want to run. Right now we have one ad available per candidate but we're hoping to ad some more in the next week.

Type you name in at the top because the end of the ad it will credit you with having paid for it.

Then pick the network and the daypart (time).

The minimum cost per candidate is $100.

Review the ad purchase and check off all the boxes that attest that you're a U.S. citizen and that you're not a member of the Bush cabinet, etc.

And then pay for it with your credit card. SaysMe.TV will notify you before your ads run. This is the beginning of a new world in media buying. I have a feeling its going to get better and better over the next year or so. Meanwhile, as usual, we're the pioneers. Play around with it. And take a look at one of the ads; this is one that points out Charlie Dent's complicity in the energy crisis and the rise of gas prices: