YouTube videos debate Proposition 8
The homemade shorts for and against the measure to ban gay marriage are not endorsed by the campaigns, but they may still be reaching potential voters.
Grant Johnson, a 49-year-old traffic engineer who lives in the Sierra foothill town of Coarsegold, passionately supports Proposition 8, which would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage.
In past elections, Johnson might have written a letter to the editor about his views. This year, he had a better idea. He made a video and put it up on YouTube.
The spot Johnson made, "Garriage," is one of dozens of homemade advertisements for and against Proposition 8 that are dueling it out in cyberspace. It begins with images of gay weddings and then moves on to dramatic photos of lightning striking San Francisco and fires burning around California, leaving the viewer to infer that the state is being punished for allowing same-sex marriage.
Johnson included the photos, he said, because he thought it was "interesting . . . an elephant in the room" that so many fires erupted in California the same week the state Supreme Court issued its ruling to legalize gay marriage.
Another homemade commercial features a self-described Jewish Mother, Molly Pier, talking about her late son, a gay doctor whose partner she still considers family. She urges voters to oppose Proposition 8.
Amateur campaign videos are "one of the really remarkable things YouTube has brought to our politics," said Jonah Seiger, managing partner of Connections Media, a Washington, D.C.-based agency that helps campaigns navigate the world of the Web. And in many campaigns this year -- especially the presidential race -- videos made by people outside the campaigns have gone "viral," racking up millions of hits and catching the campaign professionals off guard.
The phenomenon poses both positives and negatives for campaigns. The videos may reach voters who aren't seeing traditional commercials, but the campaigns can't control the messages being delivered.
Proponents of Proposition 8, for example, said they would never make a commercial suggesting that God has punished the state for allowing gay marriage, as Johnson's does.
"That video . . . was not produced by the campaign or affiliated with the campaign," said Jennifer Kerns, who until this week served as spokeswoman for the Yes-on-8 campaign.
Steve Marshall, 20, made his pro-Proposition 8 video, "Four Men In Black,” as a college project. "I go to a Catholic film school in San Diego," he said in explaining why he focused his film on the "activist judges" who legalized same-sex marriage in California in spring. "It's an issue we really feel passionate about, and we had the resources available to take some action."
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