Bush in 30 seconds

For all you radical creatives with time on your hands, Move-on has a job for you.

https://www.bushin30seconds.org/

Create a 30 second TV ad that tells the truth about George W. Bush.

Sick of the propaganda being beamed at you from the current administration's media mavens? Here's a new way to fight back: Enter MoveOn.org Voter Fund's political ad contest. You don't have to be formally trained in the art of filmmaking, just ready, willing and able to create an ad that tells the truth about George Bush.

All eligible submissions will be posted on this web site and rated by visitors. The top rated ads will then be voted on by our panel of esteemed judges, including Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Jack Black, Janeane Garofalo, and Gus Van Sant. The winning ad idea will be broadcast on television during the week of Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, and the winner will receive a recording of the ad as broadcast.

Want to help spread the word about the contest? Then download and post this poster (.pdf) in places where entrants might hang out.

Adland® is supported by your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi coffee.
Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
comment_node_story
Files must be less than 1 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg gif png wav avi mpeg mpg mov rm flv wmv 3gp mp4 m4v.
cafemuse's picture

The last call for entries!

Dear friend,
This is just a friendly reminder that the last day on which you can submit an ad for the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest is tomorrow, Friday December 5th. At midnight PST or thereabouts, we'll turn off the submissions page.

(If you've already submitted your ad -- ignore this message.)

After that point, unfortunately, we can't accept any submissions -- not if your dog ate your video file or your hard drive crashed or even if Karl Rove messed up your DSL service. So, we recommend starting the submission process as soon as possible. That way, if something goes wrong, you have a few hours to figure it out.

You can submit your ad(s) online at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/ads/submitinfo.html

We've received over 500 entries so far, and we're really looking forward to launching the voting phase of the contest. Stay tuned for more details on how to vote on the ads, starting on December 15th.

Thanks,
The Bush in 30 Seconds Team

cafemuse's picture

Just when you think its all over and they've announced the winners, Moveon has just announced more voting. This time by category (ie funniest)

There should be a category for "sick mofos" too from what I have seen like the one comparing Dubya to Hitler.
-jim

AnonymousCoward's picture

Hey dabitch:

Thanks again. The key for me is the new URL you gave and using the browser
Microsoft Internet Explorer. Netscape won't open the page.

Hope this helps someone. Happy voting!

Dabitch's picture

really? dang!

I did try the change of URL trick and it worked hunky-dory for me, as soon as I figured out how to change the URL correctly....
(ie to: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/login/change.html?id=foo)

I feel rather sorry for the competing films, we can only view 20 a day, have a whopping 1000 to vote on, and people can't get in! aargh!

AnonymousCoward's picture

Oh well.
I still can't get in to vote. I get a blank puke-green screen. That's all.

Help. I'm feeling disenfranchised!

hippiedoc

AnonymousCoward's picture

Thanks. I've been running around in cyberspace for the past 2 hours trying to view Bush in 30 ads so I can vote. If it weren't for seeing your posts, dabitch, I would still be lost.

Boy, am I tired!

hippiedoc

deeped's picture

MoveOn have asked the Swed initiative DemocracyAid (http://hem.passagen.se/democracyaid/) to step down... is that a nice thing to do?

Dabitch's picture

I did use the same email. Anyway, turns out it's a stupid URL problem in their emailsendout Eloquence figured it out on Mefi:
"You need to change
http:///login/change.html?id=foo
to
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/login/change.html?id=foo"

.... duh.

cafemuse's picture

i think it works if you give them your email that you gave when you signed up for the newsletter. i could create my own password. Wow over 1000 ads, I only saw 3 and I think I'll be seeing alot more.

We'll be launching this to the whole MoveOn base tomorrow, but we're offering you a preview today.

they say

You can start voting on the ads right now at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/vote/

(We recommend viewing the ads on a high-speed Internet connection -- it'll take a long time for them to load with dial-up.)

Dabitch's picture

Voting is open today - but their website is completely locked down. They
insist you sign up -where you have no place to choose a password. An email
is sent to you, it contains only a link. When you click the link in it your account is activated.
The catch is, it brings you to a page where username and a password
is required to log in. uh?

So I email for help after several unsuccessful retrieve password tries. An
automatic reply tells me to go ask/chat in the forums. Where... wait for
it.... The same password and username deal is required to log in.

cafemuse's picture

Dear Bush in 30 Seconds folks,
We were expecting 300-400 submissions, but over 1500 have come in. As a result of the huge interest, it's taking us a little longer than expected to process and post the ads. Voting will begin at www.bushin30seconds.org at 9:00am PST on Wednesday, December 17th.

Thanks for your patience -- we promise it's worth the wait.

Sincerely,
The Bush in 30 Seconds team.

cafemuse's picture

Dear Bush in 30 Seconds folks,
The submissions process is over, and by last Friday night over 1,500 ads were submitted. Over 800 came in on Friday alone. We're amazed and gratified by both the quantity and the quality of the ads, and you will be, too -- you'll be able to browse through them and vote for your favorite ad starting early next week.

Although the great majority of the ads were submitted with no problems, a few participants ran into last-minute technical snags and were not able to get their ad in on time. In fairness to all of the folks who blew off work and made personal sacrifices to upload their ads by the deadline, we can't accept any of these ads for the contest. But, in recognition of the hard work people put into the ads, we'd like to keep track of them for future use. While we can't guarantee anything right now, we'll try to find ways to make sure that people see the late ads as well.

If you'd like us to keep track of your ad, please fill out the survey at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/otherads.html?id=2204-3116464-kUGOt.UQW.a...

Thanks for helping to make the first stage of Bush in 30 Seconds a wild success.

Sincerely,
The Bush in 30 Seconds team.

Dabitch's picture

Moveon.org also sells DVD of the film called: Uncovered: the truth about the Iraq war, and via an interesting 'word of mouth' idea they have screenings of the film at peoples houses. It's interesting to note how many zip codes are having parties - and now many of them are full up already. Using the Internet in this way to 'market' an idea is very interesting and apparantly a huge success for Moveon.org.

Thanx for keepin' us posted Cafemuse, I can't wait to see the submitted films. :)

Dabitch's picture

International adgrunts take note:

ALL SUBMITTED ENTRIES MUST BE LICENSED PURSUANT TO THE CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE DESIGNATED FOR THIS PROMOTION. MUST BE A U. S. CITIZEN OR U. S. RESIDENT ALIEN AND OVER 15 YEARS OLD TO ENTER.

bugger, so I can't play. ;) dang!

caffeinegoddess's picture

Nope. I couldn't either.

Dabitch's picture

(I can't reach the sites today - Is it just me? Or did all the hype and press finally give just a wee bit too much traffic?)

Dabitch's picture

and hey look, they even made the norweigan tradepress. word spreads. :)

cafemuse's picture

Also, they've made some new additions to our judging panel. I guess Michael Moore is on the outside lookin in.

We'd like to welcome Benny Boom, Al Franken, Ted Hope, Jessica Lange, Michael Mann and Russell Simmons. For the complete list, check out:
http://www.moveon.org/bushin30seconds/judges.html

Stay posted for online voting on the ads, starting December 15th, 2003.

cafemuse's picture

I think its cool that they are reaching out to the community rather than picking just one company. Besides, they are putting the money into the air time they have to buy in the end.

A web submission is there til Dec 5, makes you wonder if they might have come up short, maybe.

Starting today, and running through December 5th, you can submit your ad to the Bush in 30 Seconds contest. Just go to the contest website at:moveon.org

jrskelly's picture

Wow. This is pathetic. MoveOn.org is too cheap to hire a pro to shoot their ad so they beg crative types to do the work for them. Your reward... a copy of the ad you already created. Where can I sign up?

adlib's picture

Classic US political ads seem to be all about mudslinging. Mudslinging on a target this wide is almost too easy.

James Trickery's picture

great idea - sorely need some fresh ideas in the ring of politics. Can't wait until the winners and runners up are onsite so I can watch in glee all the nasty stuff.

cafemuse's picture

Moby, Jack Black, Eddie vedder and others are already signed on board to judge the "Bush in 30 Seconds" commercial contest sponsored by MoveOn.org, and if anyone has management contacts for them or any artists you might think may want to participate, please PM me.

blabla's picture

well, they do offer to reshoot it if the quality is bad - and anything that has been turned into a 4MB QT was a lot larger, perhaps even broadcast quality, before becoming a QT.

caffeinegoddess's picture

Heh. I got beaten to the punch. Was just going to post this. :D
I have mixed feelings on this. It's that ad for free again...but this time at least it's an org...so I guess that's better.
Dab...you could always have a USer enter for you, as long as you let them take the credit for the ad. ;)

"The prize? Just in case getting your work seen by our judges and thousands on our web site isn't enough, we'll put the winning ad on TV during the week of Bush's State of the Union Address. All 15 finalists will also be featured in an email to the MoveOn membership. The ad doesn't need to have TV production values -- it's the idea that counts. We'll reshoot the
winning ad if we need to in order to air it."

If they want an ad no bigger than 4MB in mpeg or quicktime format...aren't they going to have to reshoot it to air it on TV?

Dabitch's picture

This is good. :) I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. bloody dream brief!