The ads

Text for media relase

PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
Contacts

Ronit Aviva Dancis Email: aviva032@gmail.com
Linda Young Email: romelucca@gmail.com

GetFISARight Directs Fire at McCain, GOP

A grassroots group is using a people-powered approach to send a strong message to Washington: restore our Constitution and civil rights. Through an ad campaign that encourages people to buy air time on cable TV, the GetFISARight group is setting its sights high: To help the people take back their power in a system founded on government for the people and by the people.

“Online activists have always had challenges reaching out to TV watchers, and we're delighted to be working with saysme.tv to bridge the gap,"
says Ronit Aviva Dancis, one of the group’s organizers. “Supporters can use this system to get these ads on the air now in time for the conventions.”

The GetFISARight group, which grew to almost 23,000 strong in a short time period during the FISA vote in early July, already offered one advertisement featuring a tombstone for the Constitution. The new ad stars the Constitution as the main player, with the visual featuring a pan over founding documents. One version of the ad takes aim at the Republican Senators, who voted unanimously to extend the powers of government to listen to Americans’ phone calls and read their emails without a warrant; another highlights John McCain's strong endorsement of the Bush Administration's wiretapping policies over the last eight years.

“By using simple, powerful imagery, we are able to create advertisements that can be run for a fraction of the price of a media-conglomerate ad,” says Linda Young, press officer of the group. “The beauty of this is in how the process involves ordinary people buying ads—to further human interests—instead of corporations.”

Get FISA Right, which started on Barack Obama’s web site my.barackobama.com, is composed of Obama supporters who hope to call attention to the GOP’s erosion of civil liberties while sending strong messages to Democrats about the need to restore and protect civil liberties. With the FISA battle far from over, and reform legislation expected to be introduced early in the next Congressional session, the group sees this as a key battle in protecting the way of life that the founding fathers envisioned.

"Senator Obama's response to our open letter in early July was dramatic evidence that social networking technologies can let people from across the political spectrum come together and have their voice heard,"says Jon Pincus, a strategy consultant and one of the group's members. "Now, it's time to broaden our outreach, and prepare for the fight next year to oppose legislation that threatens our civil liberties -- and the core principles of American freedom."

To see the ad, and find out more about FISA and Get FISA Right, please visit http://getfisaright.net

For more information on GetFISARight and community-funded advertising via saysme.tv, please see the following links:

• Opposed to Wiretap Amnesty? Run a TV Ad for Six Bucks, Sarah Lai Stirland, Wired - Threat Level
• Frustrated with TV Ads? Run Your Own for $6, Ryan Kaufman, The Huffington Post
• Homemade Web Ads Leap To TV, Lucas Grindley,National Journal Online
• Like Politics? Broadcast Your View for only $6, Noam Cohen, New York Times
• Networked Obama FISA Group Takes Fight Forward, Dawn Teo, The Huffington Post