Romney seeking home-grown ads

Mitt Romney took interactive campaigning to a new level yesterday, inviting supporters to come up with a new official TV ad for his presidential bid.

Romney announced a contest for backers to craft a 30- or 60-second spot with the help of 372 photos, 44 video clips, and 36 audio files supplied by his campaign. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 17, and an online vote will help determine the winner. The winning entry will be aired the week of Sept. 20, as part of his "Rally for Romney" grass-roots event.

"It is truly groundbreaking for amateur, grass-roots supporters to so directly assist in introducing their candidate to the American people," Alex Castellanos, Romney's media strategist and senior adviser, said in a prepared statement. "This contest demonstrates Romney for President's commitment to using unique and democratizing online tools to engage voters and harness the extraordinary enthusiasm of its growing team of supporters."

Romney's ad contest is the latest example of how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the Internet to engage supporters in unprecedented ways.

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York has allowed supporters to select her campaign song and create 30-second videos, which were shown during a Democratic debate last month sponsored by YouTube and CNN. For the same debate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware asked supporters to upload videos challenging his opponents on their plans for Iraq once US troops leave. And Barack Obama's campaign has posted on its website a video of the Illinois senator eating dinner at a restaurant with low-dollar contributors.

For Romney's ad contest (mittromney.com/yourad), his campaign is collaborating with Yahoo-owned Jumpcut.com, a Web-based multimedia editing platform.

The ad is supposed to be either 27 seconds or 57 seconds long, leaving time for the required disclaimer. The site provides an example of a TV ad the campaign created.

You have to be at least 18 and a US citizen, and professionals not involved with the campaign can take part. Given the YouTube videos that exist of Romney espousing different positions on issues in prior campaigns, it seems likely an enterprising Romney critic or two will try to submit his or her own entry.

But it's clear that such an ad would not win.

"Your ad can feature Mitt's biography, his family, his record as Governor, or his agenda for a stronger America," says the contest pitch on his website.

"In fact, your ad can have practically any theme you choose as long as you support the campaign creatively and responsibly."

The winner doesn't get any money, only the fame of being the first amateur to have his or her work used as an official ad for a presidential campaign. "That is the prize," said Stephen Smith, the director of online communications for the Romney campaign.

The campaign will decide on where, how often, and how long the ad will run.

Smith said the campaign expects many good submissions, but does not have a goal on the number of entries.

"It's really hard to gauge because no one has ever done this before," he said.