Health Care Video Challenge

The team of President Barack Obama created this interesting initiative to get people involve on the Health Insurance Reform, they created some kind of “video challenge contest” where people were able to submit a 30 sec original video about this topic with the option of being selected for a national TV broadcast; the contest were open to citizens residing in the United States and they were asked to submit their entries through the youtube; here are most of the entries (150+) that were sent before the deadline on 10-18/2009; the 20 finalist can be seen here. The campaign were supported also for an email campaign were people registered to the Barak Obama site were asked to vote for the videos in the following categories: Impact, message and creativity. The winner video by popular vote will be broadcast soon on National Television; the public votes were not the only ones responsible of selecting the video that will be air, but also a specialized committee that was put together for this project, part of these committee are the following people:

David Plouffe
David Plouffe was the campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. After the election President Obama praised Plouffe for embodying “the entire spirit of the campaign,” and acknowledged his role in contributing to the campaign’s community-building and its willingness to embrace grassroots input.

Tim Kaine
Tim Kaine is the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Prior to entering politics, Governor Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability.

Jen O’Malley Dillon
Jen O’Malley Dillon is the Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee. Before joining the DNC, Dillon served as the Battleground States Director for the Obama campaign and has spent the past decade working in Democratic politics throughout the country.

Patrick Murphy
Congressman Patrick Murphy represents Pennsylvania’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Murphy is an Iraq war veteran, former West Point professor and criminal prosecutor, and was the first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress. As a Congressman, Patrick Murphy has worked to ensure access to health care for low-income children across the country.

Michelle M.
Michelle is a medical student and OFA Community Organizer in Arizona. A single mother, she left her job and decided to go back to school to become a doctor because she is passionate about health care.

Courtney S.
Courtney, a native of Savannah, Georgia, is a junior at Shaw University. She is a Political Science major and a Presidential Scholar, as well as an OFA Community Organizer. She plans to attend law school upon graduation with aspirations of becoming a civil rights lawyer.

Erin T.
Erin is currently a senior at the University of New Hampshire, where she is currently working on her senior thesis while also volunteering as an on-campus OFA community organizer. During the 2008 presidential primary, Erin was one of the top student volunteers on campus and worked closely with the field organizers at her university. During the general election she worked as a field organizer in Flint, Michigan.

will.i.am
will.i.am is the frontman and producer of the multi-platinum musical group the Black Eyed Peas. His video Yes We Can, which featured footage of President Obama interspersed with celebrity appearances, inspired millions during last year’s campaign and received an Emmy Award in 2008.

Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane is an animator, comedian, and director best-known for creating the animated sitcom Family Guy. MacFarlane is also the co-creator/executive producer/voice actor on the FOX animated series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show

Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh is a television and film actress currently starring as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery on the ABC drama Private Practice, a spin-off of the hit show Grey’s Anatomy. Walsh recently completed production on the supernatural thriller Legion.

Rosario Dawson
An accomplished actress, singer and producer, Rosario Dawson is best known for her roles in Grindhouse, Rent, and Kids. She is the co-founder of Voto Latino, which promotes voting by leveraging celebrity voices, new technology, and youth working to enact positive change.

Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde is an actress best-known for her roles on Fox’s medical drama House and The O.C. She recently appeared in the film Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera.

Dulé Hill
Dulé Hill is an actor who played Jed Bartlet’s personal aide on the NBC drama television series The West Wing. He also appears on the USA Network comedy-drama Psych, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2002.

John Cho
John Cho is an actor known for his roles in the films American Pie and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. He was last seen playing Lieutenant Hiraku Sulu in Star Trek, and is currently appearing in the ABC series Flash Forward.

Brandon Routh
Brandon Routh is an actor known for playing the title role in Superman Returns. He has appeared in television shows including Gilmore Girls, Cold Case, and Will and Grace.

One of the top 20 finalist on the Health Care Video Challenge Contest

Just to make things even better the “Health Reform Video Challege” invites people who want to contribute and pay for the expenses of broadcasting the winner. The donation page can be access directly on this page; or it is display to you once you rate all videos on this page http://my.barackobama.com/VideoChallenge

All 20-finalist videos have more than 60,000 views in youtube already; this is going to be the first time in History where a TV commercial made from the government will be broadcast on National Television by public decision and support.

If this is Barack Obama’s idea of a “participative government”… welcome anytime.

I got an email today announcing the winner of this campaign, the winner video was “I Deserve Health Care” from Eric Hurt, you can see the winner video here below, more than 1,000 entries were submited acording the Organizing For America organization.

This article has been written by Libardo Lambrano, founder of Syndikomm; an online marketing firm based in New York city and specialized in multicultural markets. Libardo Lambrano, a digital citizen of the world can be reached@llambrano