Version User Scope of changes
Dec 16 2008, 2:22 PM EST (current) JonPincus 609 words added
Dec 16 2008, 2:21 PM EST JonPincus

Changes

Key:  Additions   Deletions


Notes from December 13 call here.
Notes from December 9 call here.
Final discussion thread here.


For examples of our previous ads (including scripts and the discussions that went into creating the ad), please see the Parchment ad and Don't let our constitution die), Sarah Lai Stirland's Opposed to Wiretap Amnesty? Run a TV Ad for Six Bucks from Wired, and our late-August media release. For an example of a successful hard-hitting SaysMe.tv ad, see Women against McCain Palin.

Our goals (see the discussion of goals thread)

  • awareness about the issue and specifically about Get FISA Right
    • includes media, and our 23,000 members on MyBO
  • getting others to join us as part of a large group of people working to hold Obama accountable to restore our civil liberties
    • reaching via directly cable TV and the video on YouTube as well as indirectly via "earned media" attention
  • letting President Obama know we want to continue our conversation with him
Note: there's also been discussion of a newspaper ad for the day after inauguration (which will be a collectors item). Will we be able to raise the money to make this happen? Maybe work with Strange Bedfellows ... I'm not sure who, if anybody, is currently driving this. Discussion thread here.

Overall tone


Looking towards the future, not the past
Positive



Other ideas


There were lots of great ideas that could make sense for future ads ...

  • a conversation on the phone being wiretapped and the government misunderstanding. this helps deal with the reaction so many people have: "I don't have anything to hide!"
    • possibly relate to Ft Dix terrorism trial [link here], if they're found innocent. Joan comments "the interesting fact right now is that they are maintaining that their words and actions were misinterpreted, and how easy it is to turn 'ordinary' stuff into terrorist material. THis contrasts with the rigorous process ordinarily to be followed for gaining access to someone's conversations, see what Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago described as his process for wiretapping. Lots of review and oversight."
    • use example of Steve Jackson Games from 1990 (link here -- this is the case that led to the creation of EFF), where the court case revealed the government's justification: "Loyd Blankenship corresponded with a variety of people, from computer security experts to self-confessed computer crackers. From his home, he ran a legal BBS which discussed the "computer underground," and he knew many of its members. That was enough to put him on a federal List of Dangerous Hoodlums!"
    • relate to past wiretaps of Martin Luther King as was done in this ad. (More on this idea in Harry's post in this thread.)
    • maybe it's nuns? (see 'Terrorist' nuns spotlight homeland security about an investigation into two activist nuns and other members of political groups being labeled terrorists in state and federal homeland security databases.)

  • a 'rightsometer' showing where we are, where we were 8 years ago and where we should be [our goal]
  • tie to Obama's own experience "In the office, bumbling Verizon employees, like creatures in a Harry Potter movie, are prying through the files, showing each other O's calling records, making snide comments about "O's ohs!", etc."
    • possibly contrast with Obama's FISA vote; see the more detailed scenario in Bob's post in this thread
    • maybe use this for the "lighter" ad. Verizon employees snooping, snide remarks, ten a voiceover: "Congratulations, President Obama. And now that you know you know how it feels when your phone records are spied on, please get FISA Right"
Last summer's ideas for future ads thread is worth checking out too ...