GOP Crazy – Keep it coming!

Posted on | August 21, 2009 | No Comments

Our #GOPCrazy video already has a couple thousand views, and the antics just keep on coming.  here’s my favorite selection so far, from Michael David Murphy -

The good news is that despite the hype, most of these would-be revolutionaries will arm themselves primarily with lawn chairs.

Keep it coming at #GOPcrazy

Not Again.

Posted on | August 19, 2009 | No Comments

While GOP crazies lay siege to town halls across America, some in Washington are starting to wave the white flag on health care reform. We can’t let that happen. We need medicine, not mobs; doctors, not death threats. That’s why we produced our latest video.

If you see something, say something.

Use the twitter hashtag #GOPcrazy to aggregate images, stories and video of outlandish right-wing antics. We’ll be monitoring the feed, and in our next video using the content you flag to push back on the crazies.

The mob scare tactic isn’t new.

Generations of right-wingers and know-nothings have used it to foil reform. In 2000, an ‘angry mob of ordinary Floridians’ forced a stop to the Miami-Dade recount and helped win George Bush his 1st 4 years of disastrous presidency.

In 2004, the ‘Swiftboat Veterans for Truth’ led the right-wing vitriol towards John Kerry, winning Bush yet another 4 years of mayhem.

Now, the mob is back, and after bringing us 8 years of George W. Bush, they’re trying to hijack Barack Obama’s presidency too. But this time, the good guys know what’s up, and we’re doing something about it.

For too long the right has used the mob to distract, delay and deter progressives from tackling the most important issues we face as a nation.  What we’re seeing now on health care is no exception – in fact, it’s the rule.

If you see spectacular right-wing mob activity, twitter it with the hashtag #GOPcrazy.

This time, let’s help the crazies dig their own grave.

Health Care Debate and Bogging Down the Public Option

Posted on | August 17, 2009 | No Comments

For the defenders of a public option, things are looking pretty grim.  Slim progress has been made in winning over Dems-on-the-take of the health care industry. Mostly this has to do with the comandeering of the news cycle undertaken by right-y astroturf groups.

The Town Hall takeovers and Teaparty nonsense transformed the campaign for health care reform into a debate about a debate, rather than a discussion about how to care for sick folks.  Joan Walsh draws out the contrast pretty well: the debate at town halls has become more media friendly than the actual people who need health care.

For years, the Republicans kept a stranglehold on the national debate by effectively mobilizing values-laden language to frame how issues like health care were discussed.  Pro-public option folks had the opportunity to do the same thing by using the dramatic stories of Americans denied health care by for-profit insurers to force free marketeers to account for the damage wrought by a mainly private health care system.

Instead, the discussion got (intentionally) bogged down in a back and forth about ‘moving too fast’, ‘astro-turf’ and the disingenuousness of right wing claims about death-panels and the like.

The lesson?  Keep you eye on the ball, and you’ve more likely to hit a home-run.  Get distracted, and you’ll strike out.

The Ground War: Health Care Astroturf and Greenpeace

Posted on | August 4, 2009 | No Comments

Here at Agit-Pop, we’re obviously big believers in the power of internet organzing to change the world.  But sometimes to create a compelling story, you just have to get boots on the ground.

Consider the stir caused by astroturf groups disrupting congressional town hall meetings during the August recess – even though these groups read from a professional lobbyists’ script and signify very little in terms of real support, they seem to make a compelling news story.  Seeing the talking points played out in real time – Socialism! Takeover! Competition! Choice! – creates a news story that almost writes itself, complete with clear battle lines and mad-as-hell Americans.

Almost simultaneously, Greenpeace (long a champion of media-friendly direct action) targeted Hewlett-Packard for some unwanted attention, climbing to the roof of the company’s headquarters for a little re-branding of the toxic product producing company.  Like the healthcare right-wingers, Greenpeace made a target into a clear enemy and then executed a compelling boots on the ground action to win some good coverage for the campaign.

In a similar campaign, Agit-Pop worked with the Electronics Takeback Coalition for Take Back My TV! – an integrated web and on the ground campaign that got many electronics manufacturers to create recycling programs for now obsolete analog TV sets.

The lesson?  Web tools are a vital part of organizing successful campaigns, but sometimes going the extra mile can make the difference and win the messaging day.

National Taxpayer’s Union and the ‘No’ Solution

Posted on | August 3, 2009 | No Comments

The National Taxpayers Union thought it would be cute to produce a wildly deceptive visualization of Obama’s rhetoric and the (as of yet, unwritten) healthcare bill in the House.  We decided they needed a little pushback.

Their propaganda is actually a pretty clever tool – it tries to ‘unmask’ Obama’s language on health care reform with word clouds.  However, with 40 million Americans and counting uninsured and with inadequate care, we thought it would be nice to have a counterpoint to their free-market propaganda, and made up this little piece to highlight the GOP’s obsession with stopping Obama’s health care reform plans:

NATO Takes to the Air(waves)

Posted on | July 29, 2009 | No Comments

Picked up on these very interesting ads at Copyranter – it seems NATO is doing a PR push centered around it’s 60th anniversary, creating three 45 second ads that they posted on their YouTube account. Here’s my favorite:

This is not your father’s freedom rhetoric.  Gone are the soaring speeches and military pagentry – the new face of the free world features torture porn and techno.

I think NATO recognized the shifting terrain of political rhetoric, and made these ads to appeal to citizens in NATO countries that think and interract in radically different ways from 60 years ago.  Instead of talking about freedom as a clash of civilization between nation states, NATO is now talking about how and why freedom matters to individuals, in the most concrete way possible.

This is the type of messaging that progressives need to strive for: edgy, personal and concrete.  Even when working on a  campaign with sure-fire messaging (and who wouldn’t agree with freedom, right?), there’s a clear diffrence between stale appeals to principle, and the type of direct message that gets people fired up.

Health Care Metaphor Roundup

Posted on | July 29, 2009 | 1 Comment

As the Obama Administration slogs through health care reform in DC’s swamp of self interest and corruption, progressive groups have gone on the attack over the airwaves.  Interestingly, most of these ads have relied on somewhat abstract metaphors for reform, rather than making more concrete appeals that resonate directly with the experience of most Americans with their health care system.  Lets go to tape:

First, the DNC is using this ad as a format for their offensive against Republicans trying to stop reform.  The EKG heart monitor in the background is a nice way to think about what delay might to do our economy and American families-

This MoveOn ad jumps on some of the same GOP comments as the DNC, but turns it into a big ‘football’ metaphor:

The group Americans United for Change pushes back on the GOP talking point about taking reform too quickly, pointing out that this has already been at least a 15 year process (does this perhaps too directly link Obama to Clinton’s reforms?)

Last, Bold Progressives goes on the offensive for a public option, targeting waffling Dems with big check connections to the healthcare industry. This ad garnered some attention for its use of new technology to integrate Bold Progressive members’ names into the background text, and does a pretty good job of making a direct populist appeal along the lines of Howard Dean’s argument about the Democrats’ 60 vote majority.

United 4 Iran 7/25 Day of Action Heating Up

Posted on | July 22, 2009 | No Comments

Agit-Pop’s video for United 4 Iran (check it out over on the right) has been drawing some attention in these last days leading up to U4I’s July 25th Global Day of Action.

CitizenTube helped get the word out on the actions, taking place in dozens of cities worldwide (including in a city near you)-

In the face of the continued unrest in Iran over the June 12th presidential elections, a group of human rights organizations have come together to launch United4Iran.org – a nonprofit that is pushing for a global day of solidarity with Iranians on July 25th. They’re organizing rallies in dozens of cities across the world, and have partnered with YouTube experts AgitPop to get the word out with the video below.

Most everyone reading this blog knows that new media played a vital role in the citizen uprising following Iran’s Presidential vote.  Blogs, Twitter, and citizen video helped bring people to the streets and spread the word about massive fraud in the voting process.  It’s up to us to keep the ball rolling and win a brighter, democratic future for the people of Iran.

Here’s what you can do:

Check the video, then spread the word.

Check U4I’s site for an action near you. If there isn’t one, use U4I’s tools to start one.

Grab some green, some friends and help make history happen.  Don’t forget to take pictures, video, and share your thoughts with the world.