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'Between Two Ferns' and the 8 wackiest Obamacare ads targeting Millennials

The Affordable Care Act needs young adults to sign up for the program to work, but getting their attention has proved difficult, and strategists are getting desperate. Here are eight of the strangest pro- and anti-Obamacare ads targeting Millennials.

'Creepy Uncle Sam' by GenOpp

The YouTube video opens in a hospital while a young woman is led to her examination room. She just signed up for Obamacare. Her nurse leaves her, however, and the replacement doctor pops up at the end of the examination table: an oversized caricature of political icon “Uncle Sam” with a frozen smile. He leers at the patient, who screams, and the tagline appears: “Don’t let the government play doctor. Opt out of Obamacare.”

The ad was the brainchild of GenOpp, a Millennial conservative group.  In addition to the spot described above, the group put out three others starring the leering political character, dubbed “Creepy Uncle Sam.” One has Creepy Uncle Sam showing up unannounced on Halloween night (tagline: “Don’t get scared into signing up for Obamacare”). Another shows Creepy Uncle Sam failing at a game of Operation. The videos, released across October and November, raked in over 4 million views combined and sparked a loud partisan response.

“We were thinking of that 'something' that would really catch peoples eyes that would lead into a more serious conversation,” says GenOpp spokesperson Corie Wahlen. “There are mixed reactions ... [but] we have achieved our goal to get people creeped out about government.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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