Anti-Bush Effort Plans Alternative Media Strategy: Alternative Weeklies

An anti-Bush organization today will announce plans of a last-minute ad campaign designed to sway supporters of independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader to vote for John Kerry instead. The campaign relies on a media strategy that would normally be discarded by mainstream candidates, but which is expected to zero in on independent-minded voters: alternative newsweeklies.

TheUnityCampaign.org campaign, which is being executed by the Alternative Weekly Network, focuses on more than 20 alternative newsweeklies in 10 crucial swing states.

The effort--which is expected to reach 3 million readers in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Wisconsin--features ads with endorsements from more than 70 former Nader supporters who now back Kerry, including celebrities such as actress Susan Sarandon and rocker Eddie Vedder.

An example of the ad copy reads: "If you live in a swing state like Wisconsin and love Nader? Vote Strategically!"

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³No one has gone after these millions of likely voters," said John Pearce, founder of TheUnityCampaign.org. "With almost every prominent member of Ralph Nader's own, hand-picked Citizens Committee for his 2000 campaign publicly uniting behind John Kerry in battleground states, we have a message that needs to get out. The alternative newsweekly papers were the perfect vehicle to reach these swing voters. If enough potential Nader voters hear about this, Kerry will pick up tens of thousands of battleground state votes."

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