Arianna Huffington: The Detroit Project. “The idea for this project came to me while watching — for the umpteenth time — one of those outrageous drug war ads the Bush administration has flooded the airwaves with. You know, the ones that try and link using drugs to financing terrorism. [] Why not turn the tables and adopt the same tactics the administration was using in the drug war to point out the much more credible link between driving SUVs and our national security?” Yes! Yes! Yes! From an NYTimes article:
“This is George,” a girl’s voice says of an oblivious man at a gas station. “This is the gas that George bought for his S.U.V.” The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. “These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his S.U.V.” The picture switches to a scene of armed terrorists in a desert. “And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his S.U.V.”
A second commercial depicts a series of ordinary Americans saying things like: “I helped hijack an airplane”; “I gave money to a terrorist training camp in a foreign country”; “What if I need to go off-road?”
They’re looking for donations to put the ads on the air. Sadly, some TV stations are refusing to run them. ABC affiliate: “There were a lot of statements being made that were not backed up, and they’re talking about hot-button issues.” Oh, but the statements about drugs were backed up?
Anyway, these commercials are right on. And if you can, help.