Millions for issue advocacy are being spent on all sides of the healthcare debate. The ability to separate oneself and message is key to rise above the chatter and get noticed. Online videos have become a tool for all as groups try to get their voice heard. Using humor, sprinkled with sarcasm, and a bit of irony can’t hurt.

In a humorous sketch on funnyordie.com, Will Ferrell and other celebrities do a mock-serious critique on health insurance companies.

A video entitled “Overpaid Celebrities” came out soon after as a response to the Funny or Die spoof.

The group Catholic Vote Action put out another video mocking the Ferrell skit.

The Dwight Drake (D) for Governor of South Carolina campaign put this creative web video out over the weekend. It has so far received extensive coverage. For a later entry into the race, Drake is looking for an angle on his opponents. He is connecting the video to a call to have Sanford’s removal from office brought before the Legislature in the next 30 days. A petition is linked to the video. The strategy to gain recognition and momentum seems to be working.

We’ll see if Sanford finishes his last 500.

The big political battle of the summer is turning out to be on healthcare. Some interest groups have begun churning out material in support of their respective positions with video advertising. Conservatives for Patient Rights has been airing national ads in an attempt to define the debate. One of its first ads “The Four Pillars of Healthcare Reform” hones a clear and concise message with effective buzzwords like “choice” and “personal responsibility.”

CPR has also run a variety of ads with personal testimonials of patients negatively affected by government healthcare. Its most recent ad “Bulldozer” uses the metaphor of a bulldozer as the destroyer of personal choice.

Many universal healthcare advocates have reacted to their ad buys with online responses. For example, The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) responded with a witty 1:32 web video creatively mocking right wing attacks on health care.

Americans United for Change recently delivered a TV ad before President Obama’s speech for the American Medical Association entitled “62%.” Like the previous CPR ad, it is light, simple, and straightforward. Its effectiveness is manifest in the use of President Obama’s election support for healthcare reform.

These are just a few examples and will not likely be the last as the summer battle over healthcare reform heats up.

Yes, now “Joe the Plumber” is a household name.  I actually had friends of mine, not in politics, texting me all day about “Joe the Plumber.”

It’s really quite amazing how one man can wake up one day, meet Barack Obama, ask him a question about taxes, and then instantly get shot onto the national stage of presidential politics.  Joe, the plumber from Toledo, instantly filled the role of average American worker perfectly for both candidates, as their poster child on a range of issues from taxes to healthcare and everything else in between.

But in my book you really haven’t made all the history books until you’ve been immortalized in a political TV spot.  Well, Joe the Plumber” did that one too.

McCain has a new spot titled “FACT CHECK“, which features a pack of wolves, symbolically representing the pack of lawyers which recently descended on Alaska to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin.

This ad reminds me of other more famous political spots featured in past presidential elections, featuring animals as symbols for menacing enemies, demonstrating an  excellent use of cinematic symbolism.  

And why does this work so well? Because, scary animals scare people.

Let me explain.

We are in the business of emotional advertising. Emotion creates a very effective path for psychological message delivery. If a political advertisement or direct mail piece does not create some form of fear, love, anger, or pleasure, in line with the intended effect, then it is ineffective.

Animals in action drive people back into a state of emotional instinct.  So naturally, wolves on the hunt or a bear lurking in the woods makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and fearful.  This produces a subconscious ’conditional reflex’ toward that negative emotional state. AKA Pavlovian condition.

FACT CHECK (McCain 2008)-Use of wolves to show how the Obama campaign is viciously going after Sarah Palin.

WOLVES (Bush 2004) – Use of wolves to symbolize terrorists.  This spot, not so subtly, draws the connection between agile packs of wolves and terrorist cells, both similarly capable of vicious attack on unsuspecting victims.   This was used by the Bush campaign to illustrate his strong position against terrorism and keeping the country safe.

THE BEAR (Reagan 1984) – Use of bear to symbolize the threat of communist Russia.  This spot was very well executed.  It is subtle yet it creates tension, through the sound of a heartbeat and the calm yet concerned voice of the voice talent.  During the Cold War, Soviet Russia was known symbolically as the bear.  So this spot really played to this already identifiable symbolism.  Well done.