Ad Council

Update: Also, one more quick thought. At the end of the day, isn't it setting the bar a little low to ask that people just vote? If your end goal is Civic Participation - which is the express intention of these ads - isn't involvement in a political party or in some form of political activism the real end goal?

I appreciate that folks want to be nonpartisan, or that the particular tax model they've chosen makes ads like these possible, but there is a trade-off with effectiveness that I'm not sure is worth it.
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So The Ad Council is running a series of new ads in support of that great inherent good, Civic Participation. They are lame.

Vote to get good Karma? How about vote because there are serious issues at stake that impact your life on a daily basis. Voting because it is an inherent good just isn't a compelling sell to someone who isn't already heading to the voting booth on election day.

As a nonprofit, these ads are probably produced pro-bono by fancy Madison Ave ad agencies, but that's an expensive in-kind donation. And they still cost millions to run on TV. I would hope that the folks who support the work of the Ad Council have statistics showing that these types of ads actually do increase turnout and other forms of civic participation, but I can't help but think that money could be better spent.