• by September 4, 2007

A contest to create Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's next TV ad got underway Aug. 29 at Yahoo's Jumpcut video creation site--two days later, at 1 p.m. EST, the "Team Mitt: Create Your Own Ad " page had 434 members.

The exact number of potential commercials submitted by users wasn't revealed on the site, but the 50 most-viewed ones were--with the top-viewed spot garnering 1,612 views and the 50th most-viewed spot only 14 views. The "most loved" spot had 741 views and was loved by 35 Americans.

Online voting at MittRomney.com will "help" select the winner of the contest, according to the campaign. The submission period ends on Sept. 17, with the ad set to run during the week of Sept. 20.

Entrants get to create their own spots by remixing or "mashing up" campaign-supplied photos, videos and audio clips, as well as their own content. Ads must be either 27 or 57 seconds long to make room "for those much-loved legal disclaimers." The campaign says the winner will be the first amateur ever to have his or her work used as an official TV ad for a Presidential campaign.

Yahoo acquired Jumpcut, which is officially still in beta, last October.