If I were the Unions, I would run campaign ads that discredit big business

[Tony_FLADEM]

I would run campaign ads that show the living and working conditions in countries such as Mexico and China.

Big business is firmly behind the Republican Party. For the Democrats to keep the congress, big business needs to be discredited and the American people need to be given an idea of what conditions in our country would be like if big business had all the power.

This is more relevant given that the Supreme Court has given corporations person hood status.

[Brickbat]

1. You don't need to show living and working conditions in Mexico and China.

An ad showing a family reacting as Dad comes home and announces he's been laid off, or Mom and Dad sitting at the table looking at the latest 401(k) statement and sadly shaking their heads, or telling the kids that only one can afford to go to college and who's it going to be, or watching their neighbors getting foreclosed on and wondering when they'll be next...anyway, I think those kinds of ads would be much more effective.

[Doctor_J]

3. No, but conditions in MX, China, Nam, etc. would be good

since that's where Big Business and Big Media want us to be.

[Generic Other]

7. Actually these are simple but good ideas

Wonder if they could all be montaged into one short ad? Mind if I try Brick? I agree we need ads that show Americans where they are hurting. Self-interest is a great motivator!!

[Brickbat]

8. Knock yourself out!

They key is to make it clear that these are businesses that are causing the problems, not politicians. If you wanted to make them funny you could have it start out like a serious political ad, with the Average Family sitting at the kitchen table pondering these problems (job loss, foreclosure, one kid going to college), and then a car horn honks outside, and they all look out, and there go the business owners packed into a limo, laughing and smoking cigars and slapping each other on the back. And then if you wanted to go ominous, you could have all that and then the business owners make eye contact with the Average Family, who look back all steely-eyed and with renewed purpose, and it cuts back to the business owners, whose smiles fade.

I could go on...

[Generic Other]

9. a snidely whiplash moment

almost think silent film style might work. a new depression-era film!!

[thetonka]

2. Big business already has all the power

And controls both parties.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. A capital idea. ( no pun intended).

Union-ads tend to be boilerplate, dull, trite. My teacher's union invariably resorts to shots of cute kids in class, adults staying after school, etc. The voiceover invariably conflates the adults' interest with the welfare of the kids.

This may often be the case... that helping the teachers often benefits the kids..... but it is not INVARIABLY the case and the average viewer knows this and can sense that he/she's being manipulated.

The ads are also just plain dull.

What YOU suggest is much more imaginative and communicative.

[Catshrink]

11. Agree - instead of the smiling children, they should show my students sitting on broken chairs

or standing because they don't have one. They should show the broken or water damaged ceiling tiles, the crumbling walkways, the library without a librarian, the 35-45 kids crammed into a classroom meant for 25, the one maintenance guy trying to keep a sprawling campus running smoothly.

The voice over should say: 30 years of underfunding and neglect.... I'm not sure how to work in the statement that one of the reasons for this is the pernicious underfunding of mandated special education services, the cost of which gets dumped on the states and individual school districts.

Teacher salaries? We had a teacher lose her home over the summer, another is close to declaring bankruptcy, and many more are barely making it paycheck to paycheck. Our salaries have been cut every year for the past three and our contributions to the state's mismanaged pension system and our health plan (for a higher deductible & co-pays) have increased.

Maybe there needs to be an honest ad saying what the Republicans and their tax cuts for businesses and fear of Grover Norquist have done to our schools. For those unsympathetic to the fate of our schoolchildren, talk about infrastructure - crumbling bridges, etc.

[Donnachaidh]

5. how about ads showing conditions in Appalachia?

How about ads showing people going to work in sweat shops in Los Angeles and New York? Because they ARE there.

How about running ads with people going to worker's comp doctors, who wind up having to get lawyers to get proper medical care, because the companies dick them around?

How about running ads showing thousands of people in THIS country showing up for job fairs -- and finding out the companies who were supposed to be there and hiring decided to pull out at the last minute?

We have all the ammo needed to show how business has jerked the middle class around right here in the US. No long trips required.

[Generic Other]

6. I would like to make more political videos. Please if anyone has good ideas they would share!!

Here's one I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iIf4tzeVRM

[rucky]

10. That would be way better use of 10 million dollars

than on a losing primary battle.