Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH
TEXT SIZE: A A A A
Email this post | Back to Blog home
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Have you seen this? UPDATE: Partially solved

Attytood reports:

Have any other Philadelphians seen a brand new anti-Obama attack ad that seems to have been literally dropped on Pennsylvania in the very final hours of the campaign? I saw it late last night on ESPN as I was falling asleep (like any true 49-year-old guy!) and it just aired again on the 10 a.m. rerun of "The Daily Show."

It's man-on-the-street type interviews with young voters in an urban, Philly-looking, setting. "Can you tell us your favorite Obama policy?," an off-screen narrator asks a couple of befuddled young voters, while a third young adult babbles something about "hope and vision." Then words are stamped on the screen: "You don't know Bama"...at least that what it looked like, I didn't see an "O" -- weird.

It says the ad is paid for by Morgan Warstler.

This 2000 article from Los Angeles magazine identifies him as a young "junk mail mogul":

This high-school-with-money model became the norm at Web shops like LOADtv, cofounded by a 29-year-old junk-mail mogul named Morgan Warstler. Flush with venture capital, Warstler rented an old bank building on the Sunset Strip and filled it with staff from his native Canton, Ohio. Former and current employees say they logged 75-hour workweeks producing Web programming targeted at what current CEO Jack Kennedy calls "low-hanging fruit" -- Gen Y computer nerds and skate punks.

I can't find any news about this ad, and oddly I couldn't find it on YouTube. Can anyone help with this one?

UPDATE: A March 2007 Vanity Fair article identified Warstler as "a thirtysomething entrepreneur who dabbles as a conservative operative" and says he's a close friend of Andrew Breitbart, longtime contributor to the Drudge Report.

UPDATE II: Hey, crowdsourcing works -- an alert reader helped track the ad down to its source.

You can watch it here.

It's a product of something that the above-mentioned Warstler is involved in called Saysme.tv, and here is a description of the venture:

Beginning with the highly polarized 2008 elections, SaysMe.tv allows you to participate in politics in a brand new way. For the first time ever, you will be able to use your campaign dollars to broadcast the messages you care about on TV. This begins in the form of sponsoring ads with your name at the end and will quickly grow into ways for you to create increasingly personalized messages by adding your own text, graphics and voice to commercials.

So....it seems to be something of a profit deal, when you go to the Web site you can see there are pro-Obama ads as well, and ads on other issues and candidates. As a business scheme, it may be a clever way for enthusiatic partisans to bypass the whole federal campaign finance system, by simply buying political commercials and airing them on local cable channels without coordinating with campaigns or affecting the spending limit.

It's just coincidence that the only two times I've seen their work are anti-Obama ads airing on Primary Day, right?

Posted by Will Bunch @ 10:38 AM  Permalink | 53 comments
SAVE AND SHARE
Comments
Posted by Talking Point Slueth 10:46 AM, 04/22/2008
"while a third young adult babbles something about "hope and vision." "....That befuddled voter, sounds just like the guy who posts here under a tag suspiciously like mine, Talking point sleuth
Posted by b.atkinson 11:18 AM, 04/22/2008
"I can't find any news about this ad, and oddly I couldn't find it on YouTube. Can anyone help with this one?" What do you need help with? The ad rightly characterizes the Messiah supporters as young, befuddled, easily-swayed, empty-headed dolts. But for change and hope and change and vision and hope. Time for bunch, big time supporter of the hope and change and hope candidate, the 'bring a new tone to D.C.' candidate, to slime this Warstler guy. This really has been fun to watch!
Posted by phillyPete 11:37 AM, 04/22/2008
"The ad rightly characterizes the Messiah supporters as young, befuddled, easily-swayed, empty-headed dolts." Like Tom Rooney and Sam Nunn? You're a fool, atkinson.
Posted by diana 11:45 AM, 04/22/2008
It won't work!!!
Posted by chrissmith 11:52 AM, 04/22/2008
It's so funny how supposedly only Hillary makes the "attack ads." Excuse me, but I've seen plenty of attack ads against Hillary from the Obama camp. When are people going to reject the Obama cult and think for themselves? There are attack ads on BOTH SIDES, regardless of how much Obama's people chant HOPE and CHANGE.
Posted by dousmellthat 11:57 AM, 04/22/2008
yes ...and there is another ad .. with obama admitting smoking CRack in his youth.... if hillary did, she would be gone a long time ago.... Hillary fired her campaign manager in NHampshire for talking about it.... though ..the republicans are going to grind him ito soup meat, if he wins ... a vote for barack is a vote for mccain.
Posted by phillyPete 12:01 PM, 04/22/2008
Obama had to fight back against Hillary's attacks. Don't kid yourself, it is Hillary's supporters that aren't seeing clearly. Now she's mixing Middle East policy with Nuclear attacks in one sentence (which should never happen openly). She's rattling sabers like a Republican, Voters would pick McCain for that.
Posted by EagleNation1961 12:01 PM, 04/22/2008
NO body said it was from Hillary relax
Posted by phillyPete 12:02 PM, 04/22/2008
Obama never smoked crack, but your typing suggests you should lay off the pipe.
Posted by RG 12:03 PM, 04/22/2008
Want some befuddlement? Hey b, how is McCain gonna fund the war AND keep the current tax cuts AND give us a gas tax holiday?
Posted by bobcitydoc 12:06 PM, 04/22/2008
Ran into a Hillary stumper yesterday on the street. She kept calling Obama "Hopey." Like Hillary, this women was an arrogant member of the "Shoulder pad" feminist lot. She intimated that white, male, educated Obama supporters were misogynist (a logic that I guess makes her a racist). Her vitriol against Obama was disgusting. I don't think these folks are going to help the party win in the good chance Obama wins the nomination. So, the Clinton's will have been personally responsible for 12 years (or more) or repub control (after their failure to support Gore).
Posted by EagleNation1961 12:06 PM, 04/22/2008
What ever
Posted by stev 12:07 PM, 04/22/2008
IT was done my an independent GROUP. Do your homework!!!!!!!
Posted by inditer 12:08 PM, 04/22/2008
Seems appropriate. A junk ad by a junk mail guy. Just one of the many big operators terrified that a decent idealistic young candidate may rain on their greedy parades. No such concern with Hillary, owned in toto by lobbyists, corporations and special interests. Pennsylvanians have a chance to make history by supporting the first true candidate of the people to come along since Kennedy. The hate-spewed rhetoric and ads from the Clinton camp have certainly eliminated her from any serious consideration by any voter of integrity who recognizes her presidency would be a mere extension of the corporate dictatorship currently controlling the country. For the McCain camp, his opponent must be Hillary. Obama wins by double-digits.
Posted by Fuzzy Dunlop 12:16 PM, 04/22/2008
Of all the comments here, not ONE person has responded to the claims that Obama has no clear-cut policy on ANYTHING, except that he wants to abandon Iraq immediately, and let them fend for themselves. Tell me what you love about Obama, people! (Hope and Change are not acceptable answers). Every election year, politicians go on and on about how they are going to change everything...why should we believe that this guy is any different? He has been in the US Senate for LESS THAN THREE YEARS!!! He doesn't take a stand on any issue so he can just sit on the fence, and wait to see which positions are best for him. He hardly collaborates with any Republicans in Congress, yet he says he'll get people to work together?? Not to mention he is the most liberal member of Congress
About Will Bunch
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

E-mail Will by clicking here.

PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...

...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.

Thanks.

Blog Roll
Philly/National
 
Atrios
 
Kiko's House
 
Suburban Guerilla
 
Booman Tribune
 
All-Spin Zone
 
Dick Polman
 
Philly (Dragonballyee)
 
Afro-Netizen
 
Rowhouse Logic
 
MyDD
 
Bad Attitudes
 
Billmon
 
iFlipFlop
 
CorrenteWire
 
upyernoz
 
Tattered Coat
 
Fables of the Reconstruction
 
Slacktivist
Philly
 
Citizen Mom
 
The Next Mayor
 
Blinq
 
Philly Future
 
Philadelphia Will Do
 
Philebrity
 
Young Philly Politics
 
Phillyblog
 
Welcome to Phillyville
 
Phawker
 
A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
 
Keystone Blog
 
Philadelphia - America's Hometown
 
BlankBaby
 
Above Average Jane
 
Phillyist
 
Metroblogging Philadelphia
 
The Clog
Politics
 
Josh Marshall
 
Daily Kos
 
Juan Cole
 
Oliver Willis
 
Andy Borowitz
 
War and Piece
 
Wonkette
 
BuzzFlash
 
Raw Story
 
Cursor
 
Crooks and Liars
 
Swing State Project
 
Kevin Drum
 
Talk Left
 
AmericaBlog
 
Hullabaloo
 
Mad Kane
 
Think Progress
 
Jesus' General
 
The Carpetbagger Report
 
Majikthise
 
Echidne of the Snakes
 
David Sirota
 
Glenn Greenwald
 
TBogg
 
Fire Dog Lake
 
Taylor Marsh
 
Matthew Yglesias
 
Jon Swift
 
Drudge Report
Sports
 
Beer Leaguer
 
The 700 Level
 
Balls, Sticks and Stuff
 
Shallow Center
 
Philling Station
 
Phillies Nation
 
A Citizen's Blog
 
The Good Phight
Media
 
Romenesko
 
Editor and Publisher
 
Pressthink
 
Buzzmachine
 
The Inksniffer
 
Media Bloodhound
 
Eat the Press
 
Mickey Kaus
 
Media (Huffington Post)
If you must
 
The Corner
 
Instapundit
 
Andrew Sullivan
 
Free Republic
 
James Taranto
 
Blonde Sagacity
 
ScrappleFace
Archives
 
July
 
June
 
May