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Identity Theft

If I had a million dollars -- well, more likely, several million -- here's the T.V. ad I'd create and run until the most harrowing problem our democracy now faces is finally fixed. Somebody may have already done one like it, but if they have I haven't seen it.

Since these things seem to get titles, just like the Big Kids, I call this one "Identity Theft".

(Sound: perfect silence
Image: black screen.)

Fade in white text: "10 MILLION AMERICAN IDENTITIES"
Fade in below that: "ARE HIJACKED EVERY YEAR"

(Fade to black. Pause.)

Fade in white text: "CUSTOMER DATABASES COMPROMISED:"
Fade in below that: "LEXISNEXIS/SEISINT: 310,000 IDENTITIES"
Fade in below that: "DSW SHOE WAREHOUSE: 1.4 MILLION IDENTITIES"
Fade in below that: "CHOICEPOINT INC.: 145,000 IDENTITIES"
Fade in below that: "POLO RALPH LAUREN: 180,000+ IDENTITIES"
Fade in below that: "THERE ARE MORE..."

(Fade to black. Pause.)

Fade in: "IDENTITY THEFT"

(Fade to black. Pause.)

Fade in: "IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU"

(Fade to black. Pause.)

Fade in: "IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOUR COUNTRY"

(Fade to black. Pause.)

Fade in white text: "WHEN WE VOTE"
Fade in below that: "DEMAND A PAPER TRAIL"

(Pause. Fade to black.)

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Comments

I love it. For considerably less than a million dollars, it can be put on the web, printed on posters, and so on.

That would be fine with me. If I habla'd Flash, I'd do it myself. I'd still do the TV stuff, though, if I had the moolah.

If it works at all for people who are not online or otherwise technically savvy, I think it "hooks them" by reminding them of their vulnerability to one thing they've heard about in the news, and then connects that to a vulnerability they seem to know less about. I'd like to see the Fear Factor on the voting machine paper trail stuff go up by, oh, I dunno, several orders of magnitude. Maybe then the problem would get fixed.

But hell, if somebody wants to do a Flash of it or what-all, just let me know. Do a classy job with it, is all I'd want. What's the deal you're supposed to give it? A GNU license? Well, whatever it is, I give it that in the name of The Cause.

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