Guidelines and Rules

Guidelines (the short version)

Official Rules (the long version)

Guidelines

Please use the following information to guide you when making your submission. If you're considering making an ad, we strongly encourage you to sign up for the Obama in 30 Seconds update emails, which will remind you of important deadlines and provide you with the latest contest news.

Content: We're NOT looking for the same old slick political ads from Washington media consultants. Instead, we're looking for really creative ads that will engage and enlighten viewers and help them understand the grassroots energy that's driving Barack Obama's campaign. There are some legal limits on what you can do (see below and the Official Rules), and we've laid out some basic guidelines, but as long as your ad fits within those guidelines, what you put in your ads is up to you (live action, animation, personal testimonial, whatever!).

  • Ads must be about Barack Obama and portray him in a positive light.
  • Senator Obama says his campaign is about "a new kind of politics—a politics without partisan bickering and smear tactics." In keeping with that message, we're looking for positive ads about Barack Obama, not attack ads about others.
  • Ads should not talk about or specifically reference Hillary Clinton or any other Democratic presidential candidate. Please do not use the names of competitive Democratic candidates or their pictures.
  • Ads may reference John McCain, George W. Bush, or the Bush administration, but only in the context of contrasting them with Barack Obama.
  • Please, no personal attacks on anyone.
  • Ads must be appropriate for a broad audience since the winning ad may be broadcast on national television.
  • Submissions should be consistent with the progressive political values of MoveOn, as solely determined by MoveOn.
  • No ad may depict harmful or illegal activity or substance, or offensive subject matter as determined at our sole discretion. No ad shall portray MoveOn in a negative light.
  • Ads must also be original works of authorship. By entering, you warrant that your ad does not infringe any third party’s rights, and that you have obtained any necessary permissions from all relevant third parties to submit the Submission. You may not be, nor may you use in your ad parties who: 1) are represented under contract (e.g., by a talent agent or manager) that would limit or impair our ability to show the ad in any media form; 2) have an acting or modeling contract that would make their appearance in the ad a violation of any third party rights; 3) are under a merchandising agreement; or 4) are under any other contractual relationship, including but not limited to guild and/or union memberships, that may prohibit them from participating fully in this promotion, or from allowing us to use the ad online and in television media.
  • We reserve the right to exclude any ad that we believe doesn't meet the above criteria, at our sole discretion.
  • Because this is a contest, we can't offer personalized feedback. However, if you have a question about these guidelines, you can email us at ObamaIn30Seconds@moveon.org. When possible, we'll either point you in the direction of the information you need or update our Frequently Asked Questions page and point you to that information.

Judging Criteria: Both MoveOn.org members and the panel judges will be asked to rate each ad based on three criteria:

  1. Overall Impact: How persuasive, memorable, and moving is it? (50%);
  2. Originality: Did the concepts/ideas/format seem fresh and new? (25%);
  3. Positive Message: Is it consistent with the positive message fueling Obama's campaign? (25%)

Who can participate: Anyone over 15 years old who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien. As much as we'd like to make this a global contest, federal election and tax regulations make that impossible.

Other legal requirements: Due to constraints of federal law, you should not use video or production equipment owned by a corporation or labor union unless you reimburse the corporation or labor union for the usual and normal charge of the equipment.

Length: Your ad, as submitted, should be 26 seconds long. That's because ads need to be 30 seconds long including a 4-second disclaimer that we'll add for broadcast. So, if you submit a 30-second ad, we may have to edit it to accommodate the disclaimer.

Format: Submissions will be accepted online only. We recommend that you save your videos as either QuickTime .MOV, Windows .AVI, or .MPG files—these are the most common formats and they work well within our system. We specifically recommend the MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 640x480 resolution with MP3 audio. If your ad is picked as the winner, we'll use the full resolution version for broadcast on TV. So make sure you keep your high resolution version in case you win! You'll be able to start posting submissions on this site beginning on March 27th through April 15th; online voting to pick the finalists will take place from April 18th through April 24th. Sign up for email updates in order to receive a notice when you can post and more detailed instructions about how to do that.

Creative Commons License: All entrants must agree to license their Submission under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To learn more about this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/.

Respect for Existing Copyright: You must be the original author of everything in your ad or have permission to use copyright protected material. So while we want you to be creative, you need to be careful. If you're thinking about using existing music, video clips, photos or the like, odds are that someone else owns a copyright to that material and you will need to get the copyright owner's permission before using the material in your ad. A sample master use license for pre-recorded music is available here and a sample sync release is available here (you need both). Some musicians make their music available under a Creative Commons license that would allow you to use it in your ad for free. You can find more information on that option at http://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos. You can also purchase pre-cleared music that you should be able to use in your ad at sites like http://www.sirgroovy.com/.

Consent from Actors in Your Ad: All entrants will be required to declare that they have consent from any people appearing in their ads. Note that consent requirements may vary from state to state, but often include signed releases. You can find a sample release here, a clearance report here, and a location release here.

MoveOn.org Political Action
Obama In 30 Seconds Contest
Official Rules

ALL SUBMITTED ENTRIES AND THEIR CONTENT MUST BE LICENSED PURSUANT TO THE CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE DESIGNATED FOR THIS PROMOTION. MUST BE A U. S. CITIZEN OR U. S. PERMANENT RESIDENT ALIEN AND OVER 15 YEARS OLD TO ENTER. Participation constitutes entrant's full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules. The MoveOn.org Political Action Obama In 30 Seconds Contest ("Contest") commences at 12:01 a.m. PDT on March 27, 2008, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT on April 15, 2008. Contest is sponsored and run by MoveOn.org Political Action, a federal political action committee, headquartered at PO Box 9038, Berkeley, CA 94709 ("Sponsor").

Eligibility:

Contest is open only to natural persons older than 15 years of age as of the date of entry, who are U.S. citizens or U.S. resident aliens. Employees, independent contractors, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies, and legal advisors, and the immediate family members and persons living in the same household of such persons, are not eligible to participate in the Contest. Employees or other agents who have intimate knowledge of the plans, projects, needs and themes of the Obama campaign, independent contractors of, officers, and directors of Obama for America, Hillary Clinton for President, the Democratic National Committee, their affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies, and legal advisors, and the immediate family members and persons living in the same household of such persons, are not eligible to participate in the Contest. Contest offered only in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and U.S. military bases abroad. Void where prohibited by law.

How to Enter:

Create your own "Obama In 30 Seconds" ad ("Submission") to show U.S. voters why Barack Obama should be the next president of the United States, using the Submission Criteria contained in these rules. Your Submission should effectively communicate, in an informative, memorable and creative way, the reason or reasons why you think Barack Obama is the best candidate for president. Anytime between March 27, 2008 and April 15, 2008, access Sponsor's website at http://www.obamain30seconds.org/, complete and submit the Contest Entry Form, and post your entry online. Designate how you would like your attribution to appear with your posted entry (e.g., "Mary Smith, Chicago, IL," "M. Smith, Chicago, IL," or "Mary S., Chicago, IL"). Submissions may be any form of moving image, including but not limited to, video, animation, text and audio in either MPEG, AVI or QuickTime online formats. Duration of entry should be 26 seconds, but cannot exceed 30 seconds. For any Submission broadcast by Sponsor that is longer than 26 seconds, Sponsor will edit the entry to accommodate required disclaimers identifying Sponsor as the organization paying for broadcast. Submissions that have previously been broadcast as television advertisements or which cannot be shown subject to a Creative Commons license are not eligible. Both audio/visual and visual only entries are permitted. To be eligible for entry in the Contest, entries must be received by Sponsor by 11:59 p.m. PDT, April 15, 2008, according to Sponsor's time clock. Sorry, no mail-in entries.

You may enter as many Submissions as you like, but each Submission must be separately entered.

Submission Criteria:

  • Submissions must be about Barack Obama and portray him in a positive light.
  • Senator Obama says his campaign is about "a new kind of politics—a politics without partisan bickering and smear tactics." In keeping with that message, we're looking for positive ads about Barack Obama, not attack ads about others.
  • Submission should not talk about or specifically reference Hillary Clinton or any other Democratic presidential candidate. Please do not use the names of competitive Democratic candidates or their pictures.
  • Submissions may reference John McCain, George W. Bush, or the Bush administration, but only in the context of contrasting them with Barack Obama.
  • Please, no personal attacks on anyone.
  • Submissions must be appropriate for a broad audience since the winning Submission may be broadcast on national television.
  • Submissions should be consistent with the progressive political values of Sponsor, as solely determined by Sponsor.
  • Submissions must also be original works of authorship. By entering, Entrant warrants that his or her Submission does not infringe any third party’s rights, and that Entrant has obtained any necessary permissions from all relevant third parties to submit the Submission pursuant to a Creative Commons license. All Submissions must be original works of authorship created by the Entrant who submits the Submission and who must be a natural person. Entrants may not be, nor may Entrant use in the Submission parties who: 1) are represented under contract (e.g., by a talent agent or manager) that would limit or impair Sponsor’s ability to show the Submission in any media form; 2) have an acting or modeling contract that would make their appearance in the Submission a violation of any third party rights; 3) are under a merchandising agreement; or 4) are under any other contractual relationship, including but not limited to guild and/or union memberships, that may prohibit them from participating fully in this promotion, or from allowing Sponsor to use the Submission online and in television media.
  • Sponsor reserves the right to exclude any Submission that doesn't meet the above criteria, at Sponsor's sole discretion.
  • No Submission may depict harmful or illegal activity or substance, or offensive subject matter as determined in the sole discretion of Sponsor. No Submission shall portray Sponsor in a negative light.

Prize:

One (1) Grand Prize: Entrant who receives the highest score, according to the Judging Criteria listed below, will be the Winner of the Grand Prize. The winning Submission, which may be edited for length, clarity, or other reasons in the sole discretion of the Sponsor, may be aired as part of a television advertising campaign funded by Sponsor. Time and placement of airing shall be at the sole discretion of Sponsor. Winner will receive a DVD or digital video file of the ad, as aired, from Sponsor. Sponsor is not obligated under these rules to air the Submission, and the airing of the Submission has no cash value.

The winner will also receive a gift certificate in the amount of twenty thousand U.S. dollars ($20,000 USD) redeemable at a store selling video equipment of the Sponsor's choice. The winner is solely responsible for all taxes and/or fees that may be incurred by the prize.

Judging Criteria:

All otherwise eligible Submissions submitted by the Contest end date will be judged according to the criteria. Judging will take place in two rounds, as described below. Prior to the judging rounds, all entries will be prescreened for appropriateness and for adherence to the Submission Guidelines and these Official Rules, which screening decisions are solely in the discretion of Sponsor. Submissions that are found to be deficient during the prescreening process may not be eligible for the judging rounds.

Round One: Public Voting.
There are two ways the public can make a vote count for a Submission.

ACTIVE VOTING: On or about April 18, 2008, online voting will open and it will remain open for seven days. (In order to provide fair screening and voting to all qualified entries, the opening date for online voting may be determined based on the number of Submissions received by Sponsor.) While online voting is open, visitors to the obamain30seconds.org website may vote for any and all posted entries by voting on a "5 Stars" (highest rating) to "1 Star" (lowest rating) basis for each Submission for each of the following three categories:

  1. Overall Impact: How persuasive, memorable, and moving is it? (50%);
  2. Originality: Did the concepts/ideas/format seem fresh and new? (25%);
  3. Positive Message: Is it consistent with the positive message fueling Obama's campaign? (25%)

One vote per entry per person and active email address only. Online votes that are found to be fraudulently generated or duplicated, or associated with inactive or "dummy" email addresses, are subject to disqualification. Sponsor will tabulate all valid online votes cast through the Voting System, calculate and assign each entry's weighted average rating and shall provide the top 10 rated entries as determined by the average rating of each entry (the "Favorite Picks") to the Panel Judges on or around April 25, 2008.

Online voting period ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT on the seventh day after online voting is begun, according to Sponsor's time clock.

DIRECT LINK HITS: Entrants will also receive a direct website link to their entry once it has been accepted and the voting period begins. When a Submission is viewed via this direct link, and not through the Voting System, it is not eligible to be voted upon, but Sponsor will record each unique Submission viewer by recording viewer's email address. Only viewers who provide a valid, active email address will be counted toward the count of unique Submission viewers. Up to 5 entries with the most unique Submission viewers via the "Direct Link" will be provided to the Panel Judges on or around April 25, 2008.

Collectively, up to 15 Submissions will be chosen from among all eligible entries to move on to Round 2 ("Finalists"). Finalists may be notified of their status as Finalists before Finalists are publicly announced.

Round Two: Panel Judge Voting

A panel of qualified judges will score each of the Finalist Submissions according to the following judging criteria: Overall Impact (50% of overall grade), Originality (25% of overall grade), and Positive Message (25% of overall grade). Judges will report which Submission receives the highest score to Sponsor and the Submission receiving the highest overall score shall be deemed the winning Submission. In the event of a tie, the tying entries will be rescored until a winner is selected.

All grading decisions are final. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify and remove from the website any entry which is, in the judging panel's discretion, inappropriate, offensive, defamatory, or demeaning to Sponsor's reputation or goodwill. Winner will be notified by e-mail, express mail and/or phone on or about April 29, 2008 and may be required to complete an affidavit or declaration of eligibility/liability release and, except where prohibited, a publicity release and such other documents as may be required by Sponsor to protect its right to air and use the winning Submission. Required documents must be signed and received within 7 days of the date printed on the prize notification. Winner may be notified before the Winner is publicly announced. Failure to comply or return of any prize notification as undeliverable may result in forfeiture of prize and selection of the next highest score entrant as the winner. In the event that the winner cannot accept the prize for any reason, the Submission receiving the highest score from the next highest number of judges will be chosen. A parent or guardian of a winner not of the age of majority in state of residence will be required to ratify and sign required documents. Sponsor is not responsible for and shall not be liable for late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners. Accepting the prize constitutes permission (except where prohibited by law) to use winner's name, hometown (including state) and/or likeness for promotional purposes without further compensation. Public announcement of the Winner will take place no later than May 21, 2008.

(5) General Terms and Conditions:

By participating, entrants agree that Sponsor, its shareholders, agents and representatives, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies, and legal advisors are not responsible or liable for, and shall be released and held harmless from: (i) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties of any kind; (ii) any condition caused by events beyond the control of Sponsor that may cause the Contest to be disrupted or corrupted; (iii) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Contest; (iv) any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind in connection with or resulting from participation in the Contest, or acceptance of the prize, including without limitation, claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy. Sponsor is not responsible or liable for Entries that are not successfully submitted by the end of the submission period. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel Contest at any time if a computer virus, bug, or other technical problem corrupts the administration, security, or proper conduct of the Contest. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of participant and Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction), that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California.

(6) Winners List/Official Rules:

A copy of these official rules and a winners list may be obtained by sending an email request to ObamaIn30Seconds@moveon.org, or by fax request (360) 397-2645. Requests for winners list must be received by July 31, 2008.

(7) Privacy Policy:

See MoveOn.org Political Action's Privacy Policy regarding use of all material entered and/or submitted for this Contest or otherwise collected by this site, except as otherwise provided in these Official Rules.

(8) Sponsor:

MoveOn.org Political Action

PO Box 9038, Berkeley, CA 94709

http://political.moveon.org

(9) Digital Millennium Copyright Act

MoveOn.org Political Action makes commercially reasonable efforts to comply with DMCA. Please see DMCA information in our terms of use here.

 

Paid for by MoveOn.org Political Action, http://political.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. All submissions to the Obama in 30 Seconds contest were produced independently of the Obama for America campaign.

MoveOn.org Political Action is a federal political committee which primarily helps members elect candidates who reflect our values through a variety of activities aimed at influencing the outcome of the next election.

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