Romney announces ad contest winner

And the winner is....

"Ready for Action," created by Ryan Whitaker, a 23-year-old college student from Provo, Utah, was picked today by Mitt Romney's camp to be the first amateur-produced TV ad to be aired by a presidential campaign.

The 60-second spot shows Romney speaking with a montage of accompanying images and emphasizes the campaign's themes of strength, innovation, and experience. "I can't wait to get my hands on Washington," Romney says near the ad's close.

It will air once a day in five media markets in Iowa and New Hampshire in the week starting next Wednesday, the Romney campaign announced this afternoon. Romney will introduce it at a rally tomorrow.

There were 129 submissions, the nine finalists were unveiled Tuesday, and online voting ended at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The campaign said Whitaker's ad was the clear favorite, getting 47 percent of the vote.

Except for one obviously homemade submission in which an entrant praised Romney's stewardship of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the finalists shared much in common -- in large measure because as part of the contest, entrants used 372 photos, 44 video clips, and 36 audio files provided by the campaign.

"Ryan's ad is the first, but it certainly won't be the last," Alex Castellanos, senior adviser and media strategist to Romney, said in a statement issued by the campaign. "This revolutionary use of user-generated content empowers our grassroots supporters and their efforts immeasurably strengthen our campaign."