ONE Campaign Launches $1.8M Ad Initiative Urging Voters To Ask About Presidential Candidates' Positions On Global Development Issues

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 14 Dec 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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The ONE Campaign will launch a $1.8 million advertising initiative that aims to encourage voters to ask presidential candidates about their positions on global development issues, the AP/Google.com reports. The 30-second television ads are scheduled to air for two weeks beginning on Friday in Iowa and New Hampshire, and on network cable (Sanner, AP/Google.com, 12/11).

The ONE Campaign in June launched a $30 million initiative aimed at encouraging presidential candidates to support efforts to fight global poverty, and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. ONE Vote '08 asks presidential candidates to sign a pledge stating they will offer proposals on a global level to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria; improve children's health; increase access to education; provide access to clean water; and reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger. The campaign is supported in part by a $22 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/12).

The TV ad, titled "Heal," features one person appearing to be yelling who is then joined by several other people, each of whom wears a white shirt with a number on the front. "One voice can make a difference, but one plus one plus one is impossible to ignore," the ad's narrator says, adding, "Ask each presidential candidate if they're on the record fighting global poverty and disease. One voice, plus yours and millions of others. They will hear" (AP/Google.com, 12/11). According to The Politico, the TV ads will be followed next week with newspaper ads and a direct mail campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina (Cummings, The Politico, 12/11).

The campaign, which does not endorse any candidate, has spent about $690,000 in Iowa; $625,000 in New Hampshire; and $710,000 nationwide on the TV ads. Ten presidential candidates so far have pledged to fight global hunger and diseases such as HIV/AIDS if elected, the AP/Google.com reports. ONE Vote '08 on Tuesday posted candidates' videos discussing their proposals on its Web site (AP/Google.com, 12/11). The group's Web site features a comparison of the candidates' positions and urges its 2.5 million members nationwide to use the comparison to determine which candidate to support, The Politico reports (The Politico, 12/11).

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