This is a serious request: can anyone tell me what the AARP ad campaign is about? What do they want? Political arguing gets in the way of progress, I get that. If bad people X standing in the way of good policy Y would shut up and and sit down then yes, Y would become national law. Who is X? What is Y? I honestly have no idea what the AARP is asking people to do. Someone clue me in.
***Update***
For those who haven’t seen the ads yet, here is one example.
Hard hitting stuff.
Davis X. Machina
The usual answer to that question is ‘Buy insurance’.
They’re not a lobby, they’re a financial-services company.
My American association of retired people is the Democratic Party.
flounder
Nothing. They know they can’t piss off the dead-enders in their midst, and they know they are hearing from most of their other constituents that they want a real health care system, so they put out some drivel.
Stuck in the Fun House
A link would be nice, just have an idea of what in the world your talking about.
Stuck in the Fun House
I think they’re nicely trying to tell wingnuts they should be for stuff that helps people and therefore helps the country. Of course if they did that then they wouldn’t be wingnuts would they? It’s the Mr Rogers approach to issue advocacy and general politicking, and I’m sure it will make warm the heart of the Barricuda and her ilk.
AnneLaurie
Us kids (anyone not currently collecting Social Security) should get off their dam’ lawn. Best I’ve been able to figure out these spots, the AARP hierarchy is p*ssed that both parties & most media have been all over the Youth Vote and nobody’s performing the usual ritual AARP arse-kissing. Of course that’s because the even the AARP target market has lost interest in what the AARP is selling, but dammit, what right do politicians have to not perform the Sacred Election-Year Rituals just because the world has changed?
Conservatively Liberal
AARP has traditionally (and very carefully) leaned to the right but this year they are smelling change in the air. Their membership are sick and tired of escalating health costs but if AARP comes out backing the right they may hurt their bottom line (pissed off seniors). The answer?
A middle of the road, neutral campaign that refuses to indicate backing anyone and calls for change in the health care system. Of course, as a provider of insurance, AARP has to sound like the are voicing the concerns of their membership but the real goal is to look out for themselves and their bottom line.
Call it sitting on the fence and leaning to the right but telling everyone that they are looking at it backwards. ;)
Jon H
Dakota Fanning? Morgan Freeman? Joachim Phoenix? Jeremy Piven?
Dude, why are you even asking questions? Doesn’t the commercial just make you want to be old?
gopher2b
Celebs really just can’t sit one out, can they? I hate Jeremy Piven.
Huego
The AARP is truly the most vile of the powerful lobbies in the US. Worse than the NRA.
ThymeZone
Yes, they want you to join, and then buy insurance and other stuff that they market.
I am totally fed up with AARP, they are just a money sponge.
David Broder
Isn’t it obvious, the world is clammoring for Michael Bloomberg!
LongHairedWeirdo
The AARP is asking you to say that you demand ACTION on health care and social security.
As near as I can tell, that’s it.
I don’t trust them to be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, so I’m sure there’s money in it for them somewhere. But it does align with some specific AARP interests anyway… controlling health care costs is essential to rescuing medicare.
Desert Hussein Rat
AARP blows goats, as near as I can tell.
To pretend that health care reform isn’t a partisan issue is a falsehood in itself.
This is an effort by AARP to be able to say they’re doing something about the issue, without doing anything of substance.
Sort of the non-profit equivalent of an electoral year extension of unemployment benefits. Something to make sure AARP members keep sending in those annual
extortion paymentsdues.NonWonderDog
Nahh, they’re just advertising the AARP without having to say the obvious “Hey, we’re a bunch of crooks! Let us take your money to make our Scrooge McDuck moneypiles even BIGGER!”
They’re showcasing their “bipartisan nature” as a way to branch out to all the lefties who watch Comedy Central, is my guess. I’m not sure why they’re sponsoring the Daily Show and the Colbert Report at all, though–it doesn’t seem like the right demographic. Are the people who watch Stewart and Colbert likely to buy insurance for their parents or something?
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Conservatively Liberal
Fixed.
NonWonderDog
AHA! I have defeated you, you bastige WordPress less-than and greater-than symbol filter!
Matt
What’s even more vexing is the highly positive feedback these ads elicited in a Frank Luntz focus group. Someone needs to start sending the American people the message that you can’t vote in divided government and then expect things to get done.
liberal
I think it at least partly has something to do with Novelli. Wasn’t he the guy who allied AARP with the Rethuglicans on the Medicare Part D debate?
Honestly, the saddest thing about this ad is that it makes me lose respect for Morgan Freeman.
DMurphy
It’s the meaningless faux centrist fetish that our media stars (and now Hollywood stars) fall for.
Why AARP is pushing it however, I don’t know. Perhaps, as some have suggested above, it’s to protect their own insurance operations or simply to pretend that they’re relevent.
Brett
One would hope that they’re trying to create a groundswell of support for some kind of health care reform, although they are too politically savvy to actually tie themselves down by proposing a specific plan (they’ll leave that to other groups).
Hawes
I get the frustration with partisan arguing. But what’s the alternative? As Madison pointed out, governance IS the competition between interests. Hopefully through the filter of many factions and representative government we can find out what the best policy will be. That’s kind of the point.
Madison would look at the last 8 years and say, “Yeah, that was bad, but 2006 was the first corrective and 2008 will be the second. And if the Democrats screw things up, the change back to the GOP will also go slowly. And involve arguing.”
Change in our system is designed to be frustrated, so that only the best ideas rise to the top (theoretically). That’s what was so frustrating about the 2002-2006. There was no break on bad decisions.
El
Back when the GOP Flack-Led AARP endorsed the Medicare Drug bill by saying “It isn’t a perfect law, but it’s the best we can get now”, they kept bugging me to become a member.
So I finally sent them an unsigned check.
When they called and pointed out the check wasn’t good until I signed it, I told them, “It isn’t a perfect check, but it’s the best you can get from me now.”
They asked if I would send another check.
I laughed and hung up.
Linda in Oregon
Have to admit I’m a member of AARP. They don’t openly support either presidential candidate, but they submitted a questionaire to both. Obama’s answers more closely matched AARP’s objectives, and concerns. Now you know. Old guys don’t automatically go for old guys, and senior’s health care needs are more seriously in need of reform than most folks think.
Linda in Oregon
Have to admit I’m a member of AARP. They don’t openly support either presidential candidate, but they submitted a questionaire to both. Obama’s answers more closely matched AARP’s objectives, and concerns. Now you know. Old guys don’t automatically go for old guys, and senior’s health care needs are more seriously in need of reform than most folks think.
OriGuy
Obama speaking at AARP’s Life@50+ convention.
Sounds like an enthusiastic crowd.
OriGuy
Click on the first part of that link. The at sign messed up the end.
MH
Wtf?
The phrase is “divided we fall.” Not ‘fail’.
I think this qualifies as the world’s first “fail fail”.
demer
They want to expand their base of support beyond retired/elderly folks so they are using this advocacy/advertising campaign to increase the number of people they have on their email/mailing lists.
Nothing more too it. They are a huge lobby right now, this ad campaign is about expanding their reach.
Linda in Oregon
Divided we fail is the correct phrase. Of course the original “divided we fall” doesn’t make sense in their context. Failing to find solutions, ya know.
Ken Nickell
My name is Ken Nickell. I work at AARP and manage our social networking programs for Divided We Fail.
The Divided We Fail initiative is about ensuring that all Americans have access to quality affordable health care and peace of mind about their long-term financial security. When thousands of people file for bankruptcy every week because of medical costs something needs to change. Divided We Fail is about working together as Americans to raise awareness and achieve change so that all Americans have affordable health care and long-term financial security.
The Divided We Fail PSAs are putting a human face on two critical voter issues: Health Care and Financial Security. Through Divided We Fail, AARP is engaging millions of Americans around health care and financial security. Nearly 800,000 people have signed the Divided We Fail pledge to urge candidates to make health care and financial security a priority.
The Initiative is reaching individuals across the country from state fairs and candidate debates to PSAs on TV and profile pages on social networking sites — http://www.youtube.com/user/DividedWeFail1.
AARP has even launched a a film competition to website — Stolen Dreams – http://www.stolendreams.com — to put an intergenerational, human face on the health care and financial security crisis in America. The UCLA students have written, directed, and produced short films that dramatize the situation. The films range in genre, from drama to comedy, animation to documentary, and showcase the consequences of a troubled health care and economic system.
You can learn more about Divided We Fail by visiting — http://www.aarp.org/issues/dividedwefail
I hope you’ll get involved and sign the pledge today!
Sincerely,
Ken Nickell
Divided We Fail