Over the past few days, Madison Avenue ad men operating under the moniker of “StunninglyBad.com” have produced several funny, slick mini-productions viewable on YouTube. Most of them — like the one above — lampoon misleading or just plain dumb McCain campaign positions like the notorious “drill, baby, drill,” which is of special interest to those who love Pensacola Beach.

But the ad men additionally have a larger non-partisan point to build: don’t think for an instant that watching TeeVee political ads will manufacture you a well-informed voter. As these advertising experts themselves write for their YouTube profile:

Is it possible to dumb down political ads even more? fairly possibly. What whether society based their votes simply on the first thing that they noticed about a candidate?

Unfortunately, most society do. Don’t let ads influence your opinion. design your own.

Think for yourself. Vote intelligently.

Do you doubt it? Check out the hilarious ads for and against both McCain and Obama on the StunninglyBad web site.

Then, do your own candidate research. “Drill down, baby, drill down.”

Read all the newspapers, magazines, journals — and, yes, even the blogs — you can. Check the web site of every candidate for public office on your poll, high and low, for their detailed position statements. Stop by local campaign offices. shout or collar or correspond with the candidates themselves and ask your questions directly. You can be certain you’ll get an reply whether they want your vote.

And, get to know your country’s history. whether you don’t, you just might fall for a tricky (fake) ad like that:

Original post by Beach Blogger