The People's Cube - Political Satire

Here's our chance to make a 25 seconds political TV ad to be selected for broadcast not by network apparatchiks, but by people who will see it on the Internet (the apparatchiks still can veto it if it doesn't meet the FCC standards). Read this exchange, then post your ideas. You can use both your sense of humor and your sense of serious.

saysme.tv wrote:From: Brendan @ saysme.tv
To: redsquare @ thepeoplescube.com
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 3:47 PM
Subject: help us democratize TV!

Hi,

This is Brendan from https://www.SaysMe.tv. We're a startup that allows any individual to advertise on TV. SaysMe's mission is to democratize television and let individuals decide the ads people see on TV by selecting pre-produced ads from our library. After reading through your site I think you will find out story interesting. We give American political donors a compelling, completely legal way to directly impact the coming primary elections - with their own voice. Here's my favorite part: No crazy 527's. No limits on donors. Ads as low as $25! Free speech is back.

You can see some of our recent press from our launch on CBS Television below:

CBS TV

I'm also copying Kristi on this email, she's looking for political ads for our company. If you (or anyone you know) might be ready, willing, and able make hard hitting TV spots, I know she'd like to hear from you (we're paying royalties too).

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me anytime.

Thanks,

P.S. The following link will allow you to put together a commercial spot and see how it would look on TV!

https://www.saysme.tv/embedcodes

The People's Cube wrote: From: Red Square
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 4:34 PM

The People's Cube may be interested in developing video ads for you, but we'd like to have some clarification first. We only found pro-Democrat and anti-Republican ads in your collection, and some of them were more vicious than others. Is this because...

1. The purpose of your startup is to advance a certain ideology?
2. People who run your service are liberal Democrats and naturally pick those ads that in their view "make sense"?
3. Your target demographics is "liberal" and so you're not interested in opposing opinions?
4. The people who made the initial videos just happened to be all leftists, but you would just as easily include right-wingers.

Cheers,
Red Square

SaysMe TV wrote:From: Morgan Warstler
To: redsquare @ thepeoplescube.com
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 5:25 PM
Subject: The answer is #4!

Hey guys, Brendan forwarded me your email.

Go nuts, have at it, we're free speech junkies. I'm a pro-war rabid capitalist, my partner is a tree hugging nut job. We both agree though the barriers to entry for political advertising should drop to nothing.

As long as we can get your ads approved for broadcast (cable guys are the last word) and stuff has to be TV ready, its up to people to decide to what gets run and what doesn't.

Not us.

thx.

Morgan Warstler
CTO & Co-Founder, SaysMe TV Inc.
https://www.saysme.tv - "Say what you want on TV"
Austin, TX

The tough part: The video must be 25 seconds long.

See submission specs: https://www.saysme.tv/static/submission

I've got the sound covered.

I still don't understand how paying as little as $25 will get your ad on tv?

Pupovich - I guess it's when a 500 pups will chip in $25 each, then the ad gets played - possibly each time with a new "sponsor" name: "Paid for by Rex" or "Paid for by Ginger". That's how it gets selected. The more money, the more often it's played.

My question is, if the ad collects some money but not enough to be played on TV, where does it go? Towards other ads? Like, I paid to support the Empress but the ad didn't play and the money went to a popular Obama ad?

One idea for a short ad would be a sequence of Obamunist posters from our existing collection, starting with Hope and ending with Damn. The soundtrack could be the beginning of Brahms' Symphony No. 1 to make it dramatic, or some silly light modern tune with percussions and maybe whistling to make it comical.

Or it could zoom in on the logo, with Obama's voice on the background (or someone praising his economic policy) - and then it zooms out to show the penny tray.



Obama's 'Take a penny, leave a penny' economic plan sparks new hope

Seems to me you could combine the Empress and Obama in the same ad, they are two peas in the same socialist pod.

I have some ideas for some ads, however, I have no software to make videos. I just need something that would allow me to make words appear on the screen. Anyone know of some free, easy to use software along those lines?

If not free, then cheap is ok too.

I don't have any ideas right now, Comrades.

However, I do have this pro-Democrat video that I found on YouTube which is so ridiculous that it's funny. Maybe some inspiration will spring forth from this piece of Agitprop:



P.S - This video was made BEFORE the Democrat sweep of Congress and was made to persuade people to vote for the bastards in the upcoming 06' election.

I'm sorry, Comrades! I'M SORRY! I have no choice but to share one more video with you. I swear this will be the last one on this thread. I SWEAR!

This one is pretty funny:

Jak - Windows Movie Maker lets you do quite a lot of basic video editing including animated captions, transitions, and other effects. That's what I'm using for now.

It comes free with every Windows system.

Chairman! Marvelous videos! But I think they screwed up one line, I believe they meant to say "Democrats will put the government's hand back in you, the people."

But the second video.... Chairman, you are far too modest! Why, that was YOU redistributing the rethuglican wealth among the needy.

since we're in the biz of satire.

Lets just get the latest moveon.org advert and butcher it.

Or

make an obama ad with the following slogans

"Experience you can count on" ...........

"Strong, trusted, experienced "

"Barak Obama a man who's a person that's for change and stuff that we like"



Or

A Hillary ad as follows "America needs a New face and a fresh start"........

."Honesty and sincerity when it's needed"

Red Square wrote:Jak - Windows Movie Maker lets you do quite a lot of basic video editing including animated captions, transitions, and other effects. That's what I'm using for now.

It comes free with every Windows system.

Commrade you mentioned "quite a lot" and "free"

Is this some great tool from central planning it sounds to good to be true.

It comes bundled with the operating system. Just as central planning comes bundled with confiscatory taxes and suppression of dissent.

I can't come up with any ideas for this but I had a general suggestion/question. Is the Party going to launch a Communists for Clinton/Obama (depending on whoever wins the nomination) for the November revolution, similar to Communists for Kerry in '04?

Ah, I think I am beginning to see how this is done. I am surprised air time for even 25 seconds is as cheap as it says. Unfortunately there are only 3 cities available so far.

Branish wrote:I can't come up with any ideas for this but I had a general suggestion/question. Is the Party going to launch a Communists for Clinton/Obama (depending on whoever wins the nomination) for the November revolution, similar to Communists for Kerry in '04?

Soory but our new group is going to be

PANHANDLERS FOR CHANGE

OR

BUMS FOR CHANGE

The whole calling commie things is so blase

What about Change for Bums?

My first movie ever. LAWL.

EXCELLENT!

On the satire bit ... Using the contestants words against them is very powerful.
Every time Hillary starts talking about what she would do with record oil company profits I duck tape my assicus reticus shut practicing for the day knowing it's only a matter of time before Mom and Pop Small McBusiness will experience a profit reduction program under Hillary Care. ... I'd love to know what she we do when the oil companies have a bad year? (Like the last 45 ?)

I see all the politicians are leaving The Big Three automakers alone.
I'd like to see 25 seconds on how liberalism ruined an entire auto industry.

Chairman M. S. Punchenko, damn that was a funny video.

They used to have a show where a robot looking creature and some guy, shown in silhouette, ad-libbed sarcasm and satire to old movies.
Watching any politician's ad with these two taking pot shots would be pretty funny...only if the critique was spot on.

Ok, so I'm working on my second video now. It's almost done, I just haven't figured out what I want to do with the music yet.

Here is my little contribution (first real video). It exceeds the 23 second requirement, but I decided to post it anyways for the hell of it. Maybe we can *collectively* draw ideas from it or something.

Anyhoot, the original video had dreary music fit for a DNC or MoveOn ad which really added to the overall feeling of misery, misery and more misery. However, I decided not to include the music due to my fear of the composer coming after me or bitching at Red for allowing such “unauthorized” use of his work in a blatant political ad (A political ad that is for the Common Good, mind you).

The images used are images of people waiting for the iPhone or some other gadget to come out – but we can just tell The People that it is really scenes of breadlines and economic hardship.

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="https://i133.photobucket.com/player.swf ... aganda.flv">









If you have time, go and visit this link to hear the music that was to be used in my original. Only the first 41 seconds were to be used: https://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01130/

Oh my! You guys kick ass! Maybe I'll join you a little later when I have time.

Jak - Excellent job, especially for your first video! I presume it's your own music. Sounds very appropriate. And I love the handle - TheDailyCube. LOL.

Chairman - also a great idea. I don't know if this can be squeezed into 25 seconds, especially that it doesn't give enough time to realize what these pictures REALLY stand for. Perhaps making a disclaimer in the end that these are iPod lines?

Ask Jak for mournful and tragic music, but I'm sure he's already picking something for you out of his own pieces that sound similar to that Jeremy Soule piece in the link.

Even if it exceeds the 25 sec limit, it can still make a great video for the Cube - we'll post it in the Current Truth section. You can open an account on YouTube for it like Jak did for his video, or send it to me and I'll upload it to the Cube account - it doesn't matter.

Once we settle on the candidates, we'll have to prepare a hi-rez version of each for the actual submission. The specs are on the site. So try to save all the hi-rez images you worked with, and in the future, if you have to decide between various images, consider size and sharpness as important criteria.

Oh, and the second part of the People's Cube PAC (last shot in Punchenko's video) is correctly spelled as "People's Cube PAC for Change, Hope, and Free Haircuts"

I don't have any ideas other than a vague misty impression on content but I know the flavor I'd want. Something sort of like this, only political:

Next video. An authentically democrat-style attack ad. Youtube seems to have cut off the last half-second. =(

Red Square wrote:Oh my! You guys kick ass! Maybe I'll join you a little later when I have time.

Jak - Excellent job, especially for your first video! I presume it's your own music. Sounds very appropriate. And I love the handle - TheDailyCube. LOL.

Chairman - also a great idea. I don't know if this can be squeezed into 25 seconds, especially that it doesn't give enough time to realize what these pictures REALLY stand for. Perhaps making a disclaimer in the end that these are iPod lines?

Ask Jak for mournful and tragic music, but I'm sure he's already picking something for you out of his own pieces that sound similar to that Jeremy Soule piece in the link.

That's correct Chairman, I can provide music for your video, I've already got a few pieces in mind. First though, it needs to be 25 seconds. Second, you need to make sure you get permission to use any and all copyright material that exists in your final ad. Thirdly, OCR isn't going to allow the use of any of their work in for-profit venues. The licensing agreement/EULA specifically denies it. I know this because:

A. I have music on OCR.

B. When they did their legal paperwork, they consulted me on it and I ended up writing/rewriting several portions of it.

Lastly, I like the idea, but it needs to be less subtle. Remember, democrats will be seeing this. They aren't going to get it unless we make the premise extremely obvious. I recommend pictures with extremely blatant iPhone signs, etc. Perhaps a narrator can whine about the terrible iPhone famine of '07.

Thanks for the advice, Comrade Jak.

Chairman M. S. Punchenko wrote:Thanks for the advice, Comrade Jak.

Pondering it further, reprising the sinister narrator voice of my last ad for yours is sounding like a good idea. It's your ad though.

Ok, now I'm working on ad number 3. I haven't had this much fun in a long time. =)

That's OK, Comrade Jak. I highly doubt I can get any of my ads under 25 seconds. However, I really like the ones you are cooking up. The McCain hates dogs ad was great.

Comrade Otis: Didn't the Cube pioneer Vegetable Liberation?

To Komrad Jak and Chairman M. S. Punchenko,

I also have some depressing/ominous sounding audio clips that are not subject to copyright challenge, so if you need something easy to stretch or shorten, send me an email and I'll send you the audio files. Send the email to GorbelsCube then the at symbol and then politicalxray.Com.

Praising Mother Earth and GAIA, I am,
Yours Truly,
Gorbels Cube (aka Al Gore aka GAIA HOME, which stands for "Gore As Infinitely Attentive Husband Of Mother Earth" aka Da Gorgle and also inventor of the GoreMobile at https://politicalxray.com/GoreMobile.htm and also inventor of the GAIA HAT to Save Mother Earth at https://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1895)

Hey Jak, I think you've discovered a powerful hidden talent! I know you wanted us to do videos with your music, and it's a good thing no one did because you got teed off and started to make them yourself! And they're better than any of us could make them.

Speaking of Arrogant Worms in Otis's video, here's another one of their clips . Such simple pseudo animation is easy to do on Photoshop and can be a way to go for some of our projects.

We just need ideas. And time. I have many good ideas but little time.

Anyone with no ideas and plenty of time on his hands want to barter?

The Mime? Mulva?

Anyone at all?

WOW COMRADES!
You are all amazing. This is EXACTLY what our site is about.
I am in touch with RedSquare about his work, but I encourage you
to contact me directly if you want your ads on the site. I think it will
be easier for us to work together individually.
Also - to answer the question about why it's as low as $25:
We are able to buy media on an advertiser's budget, but we have the technology to split it up and give regular folks a piece of the pie.
If you choose an ad - and buy it for whatever price - that ad is guaranteed to run. It's just like buying a product on Amazon or something. If the wrong ad airs, that's our fault.
Does that make sense?
I can't tell you how excited I am to be getting edgy conservative content.
You are all great. My email is [email protected] - I can hook you up with our editor who can help you with format/editing, etc..
We will need original or royalty free music - we can provide some, or it sounds like Komrad Jak has some of that covered. I'll keep checking out the thread to see how it's going.. Keep rocking..

how about one of those Head-On commercials, except it will say "Hillary, Apply Directly to Your Ballot; Hillary, Apply Directly to Your Ballot; Hillary, Apply Directly to Your Ballot....etc." over and over and over.

sajdkghf - it could work if she becomes the official nominee.

We won't know it until this soap opera goes to another season, but this season already has very few episodes left. If you REALLY need to know who will win - Obama or Hillary - check Soap Opera Digest at the supermarket. But then you'll kill all the fun. Hey, whatever creams your twinkie, we're not here to judge you - just as long as you don't tell us the spoiler.

saysme wrote: We will need original or royalty free music - we can provide some, or it sounds like Komrad Jak has some of that covered.

Yea...my studio would be a poor investment if I never used it.

Anyhoo, I'm going to take a wild guess that my second ad isn't going to be used for the small fact that it accuses McCain of being Hitler and molesting pets. Most of my ideas are pretty "out there" and might be rejected by networks for that reason. I never actually watch tv, so I don't really know what's acceptable these days. So how's this, I'll give a list of some of my ideas so far, and you, Kristi, can tell me which ones will fly, which ones might fly, and which ones would sink like Mary Jo Kopechne.

For my fake anti-McCain ads: (are those even allowed?)

Can I accuse McCain of being a fact-monger?

Can I accuse McCain of being too extreme for America due to his strange idea that people should keep more of their own money?

Can I accuse McCain of putting unicorns on the endangered species list?

Can I accuse McCain of stalwartly defending an imperialist country which is full of bitter, angry white people who cling to guns and religion to ward off having to accept the supreme maternal embrace of socialism?

Are there any circumstances under which I can accuse McCain of being Hitler? The progressives waited all the way 'til September 12th, 2001 last time. I don't think they'll wait this long this time and I'd like to beat them to it.

Can I make an ad in which the only message is, "McCain.......BAD! NO VOTE FOR MCCAIN!"

Now, for some of my (real) anti-Obama ads:

Can I accuse Obama of just wanting to preside over Jeremiah Wright's third term?

Obama has a courage-perception problem - can I accuse him of courageously looking responsibility in the eye and saying, "You're not the boss of me!" or bravely choosing to not to vote yes or no on 129 bills in the Illinois state senate, etc?

Can I make an ad called "Jihadists for Obama", in which Jihadists make a case for an Obama presidency? (this is of course based on the Hamas endorsement of Obama)

Can I bring up Obama's decision to vote against the induced infant liability act? That decision is tantamount to legalizing infanticide.

Can I accuse him of having lied about possessing weapons of mass change to get us into war with the republicans?

Can I accuse him of secretly being an evil republican and then plug hillary in the same ad? (just to tweak dems, obviously)

Can I list his proposed tax increases? (probably wouldn't fit in 25 seconds.)

Can I list his major accomplishments? (5 seconds for the initial statement, "The following are Obama's major accomplishments", then 20 seconds of blank screen.)

That's just off the top of my head. Let me know, I'll have more ideas to sort out later.

Ha! These are very valid questions and great ideas.
It's really exciting that you are with us on our journey through the barricades of broadcasting. I am pushing satire 100%. Otherwise, where is the voice for anything other than the mainstream?
If it were up to me, I would open the floodgates and put it all up there, but it's not up to me(YET)
SO
YES you can make satirical anti-Mccain videos. I especially like unicorns on the endangered species list - as well as people keeping their own money
The Obama blank screen is hilarious (reminds me of the erased Robert Rauschenberg drawing). I will suggest that you keep it on the softer side of harsh - maybe hold off on the Hitler and Jihad ones. Hoping that doesn't defeat the purpose and that you're still inspired to play along. We want the folks in Indiana, Raleigh, and Portland to get it, and we want to get along with broadcast while we're still dating, so we can exercise more and more freedom into the future.
SOME IMPORTANT TIPS FOR VIDEOS:
25 seconds
Stills that are used should be 1st or 2nd generation so the resolution is high quality- try to have access to the photos or permission from photogapher
Current News Clips are OK
Music - should be original
I recommend - no more Hillary unless she's involved with some other issue or candidate- (she'll probably be out of the race by the time we get it up )
I hope this helps!!
thanks for everything so far... and for the good laughs

Ok, third video. I think this is a bit more representative of the Cube than my last two videos.

Bullseye!

Not Socialist Enough for America!

Awesome.

Wow, I can't believe how much hatemail I'm getting on that last video. Finally, success.

A little idea, perhaps not for saysme.tv but still funny.

Has anyone seen Idiocracy? In this fragment, see 2:25 to 4:55. How bad would it look if we put Obama captions and logos over this and substitute Luke Wilson with, well, I don't know, Karl Marx? Che Guevara? Bill Ayers? Richardson or whoever else he might pick for vice-president?

Komrad Jak wrote:Wow, I can't believe how much hatemail I'm getting on that last video. Finally, success.

Hate mail from McCainiacs writing that McCain is Socialist enough for America?

It would be fun to have a contest to see who can generate the most hate mail.

Komrad Jak wrote:Wow, I can't believe how much hatemail I'm getting on that last video. Finally, success.

If you're getting FLAK, you must be over the target. Perfect video, by the way!

The "Not socialist enough for America" theme is derived from the wealth of brilliant material already available on this site. I think we could use it as our main theme; in doing so we can make many of the best ideas to grace this site into powerful ads along those lines.

Comrade Otis wrote:Hate mail from McCainiacs writing that McCain is Socialist enough for America?

Nope, only from O'zombies. Apparently, bringing up Obama's socialist leanings is deeply offensive to them, just like any other attempt to scrutinize his record. My favorite hate message so far came from this emissary of Yeswecan:

"u rasist idoit fashist dont even no obama n ur video is pathetci keep tyring wingnuts"

http://www.youtube.com/user/allencrider

Being surrounded by people like this all the time, it's not surprising Obama would be so cheerful about wishing to speak terrorists. Terrorists probably seem very reasonable after being subjected to this level of conversation for so long.

Also, regarding McCain, I think it goes without saying that he's not going down in the books as a great president. But, compared to the alternative, McCain might as well be as messianic as O'zombies imagine Obama to be. The question is whether we want someone who is a lukewarm conservative at best, downright liberal at worst in the whitehouse, or, a dictatorial radical marxist with the capacity to bring cataclysmic economic self-destruction, hidden behind a mask of platitude.

Before I finish/upload video 4, I'd like to take a moment to try and apply some organization to this process with a list. Please help me update this list with more ideas. Suggestions/comments welcome. In addition, my time is limited and I'd like to make as many of these as possible. Because of this, I'm going to indicate certain areas I could use some help for the production. Let's make as many of these babies as we can.

1. Obama's "list" of accomplishments.

Notes: I think this'll be my 4th ad. At the beginning, I'll give a public service announcement, informing the audience they are about to experience all that is obama's accomplishments, which will of course be represented by 20 seconds of a blank screen.

2. Obama: Man of courage.

Notes: This may be my fifth ad, depending how the production fares. Imagine Obama being sung about in a Monty Python episode/movie and you'll have the gist of this ad. If anyone knows of pictures/news footage of obama running away that we can use, it would be perfect for this ad. It may not fit in the 25 second margin.

3. Appeasers never prosper. Obama: Yes we can!

Notes: I think the title says it all. I need to find some news footage with obama specifically stating that he wishes to meet with terrorists without preconditions.

4. America needs a leader that already is.

Notes: Comparing McCain's record with Obama's speeches. The idea is to show obama giving speeches saying we need to do certain things juxtaposed with examples of McCain already having done those things.

5. John McCain leaves no one behind.

Notes: Tells briefly about McCain's decision not to leave captivity when he was offered because he didn't want to leave anyone behind - then transfers that idea to McCain's platform. Production is almost done on this ad, I'm just dragging my feet on completing the music.

6. John McCain: Too extreme for America.

Notes: Lists McCain's "extreme" positions: People should keep more of their own money, fact mongering, desire to not run away constantly, etc.

7. John McCain: Death to Unicorns.

Notes: A discussion about how McCain used Rove's weather machine to create global warming to make LSD more difficult to make, thus decreasing the supply, thus decreasing the number of Unicorn sightings in San Fransisco, thus evidence that McCain has diminished unicorn population putting them on the endangered species list. This might require more than 25 seconds.

8. Obama: Tax you into prosperity.

Notes: I need a list of Obama's proposed tax increases. I simply don't have the time to compile an encyclopedia of data together, so I'd appreciate some help putting together this list.

9. BBCC: Bush economic policies cause iPhone famine of '07, the mass graves were never found.

Notes: Me with a british accent + Chairman M. S. Punchenko's proposed ad giving a "BBCC" report describing the disastrous human toll that Bush's economic policies have caused. This will require footage/pictures of general economic devastation or people waiting in lines for iPhones made to look like economic devastation (like chairmen's original idea). We will need the rights/permission for this stuff. 25 seconds might be too short for this concept.

10. Who are they?

Notes: Red's ad involving illegals and the troops. Red is doing the production on this one; I'll provide the music. Let me know how else I/we can help. May be difficult for 25 seconds.

Red, I know you were planning some Hillary ads. Are those still in the mix, or should we expect them to be shelved along with Hillary? If not, I know you have other Obama-related ad ideas, and, as I stated before, a wealth of material to draw from exists already, archived by this site.

Obama's tax hikes according to the WSJ

top income tax rates to 39.6% from 35%
capital gains tax rates to perhaps 28% from the current 15%
dividend tax to 39.6% from 15%
top estate tax rates back up to 55% from 45%
he wants to raise substantially or abolish the $102,000 cap on wages subject to the Social Security payroll tax

I put Hillary ads on the back burner - until we know they may even be relevant.

Jak - regarding news footage with obama stating that he wishes to meet with terrorists without preconditions - I think he said it on camera only once during one of the earlier presidential debates I happened to catch (CNN, MSNBC, or the like). I remember how Hillary gave him a surprisingly reasonable response to that, saying she wouldn't want to be used by dictators for their propaganda.

I'm very busy with other stuff right now, but I'm still thinking of making videos. The one that's most clear in my head involves the "Take a penny" tray. I can't find a tray with coins on the Web that's large enough, and unfortunately "Take a penny" trays are not even in use in New York, so I can't even take a picture of the one in the store or buy one to photograph it at home (the best solution). I tried buying one online, but they only sell customized trays in large quantities, and the individual ones on eBay were either black or dark blue and I need something light, preferably white.



Curiously enough, when I asked for the penny trays in the stores in NY (including Staples), nobody knew what I was talking about - in addition to never seeing one, they all had poor language skills, having come from China, Mexico, or Middle East.

So if anyone has such a tray or can get one inexpensively, please let me know and I'll buy it from you and pay for the shipping too.

I love doing upand adding videos to YouTubes daily! Thanks!