Illinois Is Broke is broke.
The Commercial Club of Chicago’s anti-government pension campaign is apparently so short of cash it can no longer afford writers for its ads. So it’s recycling ads it finds on YouTube. Check out the similarities between its latest ad, entitled “Reform Pensions Now!” and an ad entitled “Doorbell,” which has received over 460,000 hits. Both have the same set-up: a mother holding her daughter answers the door, to find a man from the government asking for more money. When the mother protests she’ll be in her 70s before she can pay it off, the unseen tax collector says, “I wasn’t talking to you.” Message: the tax man is coming for your children!
The ads appear to have been filmed in the same living room, although the actors are different. In the Commercial Club’s ad, the door-to-door tax man tells the mother, “I’m from the state of Illinois. Our retirement plans are $140 billion short.”
Illinois Is Broke, says the group saw the original spot after it “went viral,” and contacted producer Don Brookins, who lives in Colorado. Brookins was also involved in the production of Illinois Is Broke’s ad.
“The concept was created by a former news photographer in Colorado,” Illinois Is Broke said in a statement. “We thought it had strong impact, so we contacted him, purchased the rights and in fact, invited him to come to Chicago to help produce the spot.”
Watch the original “Doorbell” ad, then watch Illinois Is Broke’s ad below.
And this ...
