The left is having a temper tantrum.
Reading a couple of liberal scribes over the past 24 hours, we can almost hear the huffing and puffing, the indignant stamping of feet; reading their tweets, we can nearly hear the feverish pitch of their whines. Oh, the outrage. Won’t somebody please think of the children? On and on.
The cause? These hysterically creepy ads Generation Opportunity released urging young people to opt out of Obamacare on Oct. 1.
WATCH THE EXAM:
Complaints have ranged from the mundane to the delusional, with the ever-reliable folks at MSNBC seeing racism in the ads’ diverse set of actors. But brushing aside the panicked innuendos the left brings to every waking moment, all the young folks over at Generation Opportunity are seeing are clicks. Awareness of their cause. Alertness to their message.
Because seriously, when is the last time an anti-Obamacare ad went viral?
And viral it went. Published on Thursday, the videos have already racked up over one million hits combined. In the first 24 hours, over 100 publications wrote them up.
WATCH THE GLOVE:
“This is written for young people, by young people,” Generation Opportunity president Evan Feinberg, 29, told The Daily Caller. “A lot of groups message to young people through traditional political ad campaigns because that’s all they know how to do. We think these videos went viral because we put ourselves in the minds of our friends, classmates, coworkers, and asked what would we find creepy? Funny? What would get the message across for us?”
Well, it turns out the answer isn’t some long-winded commentary on health-care policy in the United States. It’s comedy. Dark comedy.
“That was always the goal: To use creepiness to get the buzz,” one outside consultant who worked on the project told TheDC. “Otherwise it would have just another center-right ad — not ‘holy shit,’ which is what it was.”
“Messaging from a 70-year-old, center-right perspective has not helped us reach young people,” the consultant added.
And she has a good point there. Even when conservatives abandon their policy-heavy arguments steeped in history and philosophy for bumper-sticker messaging, they still often miss the mark. One well-known group, for example, has campaigned for young folks to “burn” their “Obamacare draft card” — a message that no doubt resonates strongly with generations that lived under the shadow of the military draft. Yes, that draft — the one that stopped affecting young men over four decades ago.
The Obamacare bill is really difficult to explain in a 30- or 60-second thing,” Feinberg told TheDC. “So we wanted something that could go viral, that could connect people with resources.”
“A lot of people still don’t understand what opting out means,” he continued. “When they go to our website, you’ll find a wealth of information about the law. You’ll learn a lot of information about your options a a young person. Our goal from the beginning of the campaign was to educate young Americans about the difficult decisions they have to make on Oct. 1,” when they have the option to begin enrolling.
The idea of turning people on to a message by initially triggering an emotional response is old, by the way. Very old. And the left has mastered it: Republicans hate the poor! Republicans want to put black people back in chains! Republicans are waging a war on women! Never mind the facts. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
“I think that their instincts were right,” the outside consultant told TheDC. “This is exactly what they set out to do. This is what they thought would break through the noise. We’re going with shock and awe because this will break through the noise and go viral and people will pay attention.”
So let the outrage continue. Let more readers click, and learn a thing or two about the options they have in front of them. Giving citizens the information they need to make important and informed decisions about their lives and their health care is, as one powerful liberal is fond of saying, “The right thing to do.”
Oh, and one more thing for all our well-meaning liberal friends: If you see a rubber glove rectal exam and think this ad has anything to do with “sex,” you’re probably not doing it right.
Follow Bedford on Twitter and Facebook
P.S. – Keep an eye out for Creepy Uncle Sam Halloween costume. It’s just too good.
