The Gary Johnson-supporting SuperPAC AlternativePAC has launched a new project, called “Balanced Rebellion.”
Via their site and using Facebook, they link a voter who would like to vote Libertarian from a specific state who says they would feel obligated to vote Hillary Clinton if they had no other choice to another voter who says they’d feel obligated to vote Trump in that situation.
This is intended to solve the problem of the would-be third party voter who fears their vote would enable the candidate they most hate to win. You know, the old “A vote for a third party is a vote for whatever candidate you most hate.”
As Matt Kibbe, who runs the PAC, explained in a phone interview this morning, you will actually be informed of the existence of this specific other voter, but just a first name to protect the other users’ privacy.
The site and idea are explained in a long-form comedic video starring “Dead Abe Lincoln.” The 5-minute ad attacks Trump as your drunk racist Uncle and Clinton as a corrupt pol trying to “make millions on political favors.” If America is Gotham City, then Clinton is the Mob and Trump the Joker. Johnson then is Batman.
Dead Abe then explains some of Gary Johnson’s good qualities, such as being a popular GOP governor in a Democratic state who managed to cut taxes, who wants to end wars, and not spy on you. It tries to stress that even if you don’t believe in all Johnson’s policies, you still might be able to see he’s a better presidential choice than Clinton and Trump.
The video is the creation of the Harmon Brothers, profiled last month in the Washington Post for being the famous makers of rulebreaking longform web-based ads, whose initial rep is based on “turning gross into gold” (they invented the “pooping Unicorn” for the Squatty Potty product).
“Taboo products, if we believe in them, are our specialty,” Jeffrey Harmon, one of the four Mormon brothers who run the agency, told the Post.
Jeffrey Harmon says in an emailed statement via Kibbe that “Early indicators suggest this Balanced Rebellion ad is as viral as the mega viral fiberfix ad we released last week.”
AdWeek on that fiberfix ad, which got 3 million Facebook views in a day with no paid push.
The Harmon Bros. “dead Abe Lincoln” video for Balanced Rebellion:
