Ad contests have become a bit passé of late, but MoveOn’s recent solicitation of scripts for radio ads stands out as a good example of social media in action — as well as an online/offline mixed-media performance from the organization that invented crowdsourcing of political ads. I risk being labeled as obsessed with radio, but audio seems like an excellent channel for citizen contributions, in this case ads to be run against Republicans blocking changes in Iraq War policy. The MoveOn contest requires even less technical ability than video, since anyone with a feel for words can try his or her hand at writing a script. I’d love to see them open the production process to member contributions as well — let people submit their own MP3s and see what comes out. But this script competition will be determined in part by member vote, and overall it looks promising. Update: A Loyal Reader (thanks, Mom) points out that this competition is also being heavily pushed on the John Kerry list, which she still reads but whose messages I am apparently all too likely to delete.
– cpd