AD OF THE WEEK
Your Vote Matters -- To Advertisers

I think it's great that MTV is trying to get more people aware of political issues, and to get them to vote, don't get me wrong. But this makes the equation perfectly clear: Political interest equals more viewers of MTV equals more viewers of MTV's advertisements equals more money for the companies advertising. So voting becomes a financial transaction. Does that really promote democracy, or does it put us just where every other ad campaign does -- in debt to the companies who fund the media which is so important to us?

Note the language here. They've tastefully avoided the usual "Own the eyeballs of 20 million young viewers" language they might otherwise use. It kind of clashes with ideas of "democracy" and "liberty," y'know? Instead, this ad makes advertisers feel good about themselves -- they're not making more money for people who already have plenty, they're "joining a movement" to "mobilize voters."