The Ending Spending Action Fund, a conservative-leaning Super PAC advocating for the reduction of the federal debt, wants to cast a new star for its latest Facebook video advertisement: you.
Called "The Ad About You," the ad is essentially a Facebook app that uses pictures you've posted to Facebook to customize an interactive video template.
When you install the app, it asks for your basic info, relationship status, your photos, photos shared with you and your customized friends lists -- everything it needs to customize the commercial. The app uses HTML5 and JavaScript to build the ad.
The Ad About You is particularly effective at putting photos of your closest loved ones in the advertisement -- when this writer demoed the app, it used almost entirely photos of himself and the person with whom he's listed as "In a Relationship" on Facebook.
Contextually, the ad essentially asks if the viewer is better off under Barack Obama than he or she was before his presidency began. It ends with a shot of Mitt Romney and his wife Ann, with a caption reading "We can do better."
"The ad strategy is very basic," said Brian Baker, president of Ending Spending. "There are a number of undecided voters and we're trying to reach them in every way possible: print ads, tv ads and online ads. It's about real people talking to the neighbors, friends and family members about whom they're going to vote for this fall.
"The folks that star in this ad are your friends, your family."
When asked if he believed people would willingly allow Ending Spending to access their personal photos for use in a Super PAC video, Baker said he thought they would.
"I'm quite confident people will click on it," he said. "It's an innovative idea, and if they like it they'll share it with friends and family."
As of press time, approximately 6,180 people "liked" The Ad About You on Facebook.
Ending Spending is financed mainly by Joe Ricketts, billionaire and founder of TD Ameritrade. It has spent $4.5 million on the 2012 presidential race, mostly on ads attacking President Obama, per The New York Times.
Access The Ad About You right here. Would you give a Super PAC access to your Facebook photos to see them in an ad?