October 23, 2013

Listen to Scarlett Johansson Try to Sell You on Obamacare

Screenshot: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwrzMkPSeWc">The New York Times</a>/YouTube

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Last Friday, Planned Parenthood announced that they had enlisted three actresses to help them inform Americans about details of the Affordable Care Act. Scarlett Johansson, Aisha Tyler, and Gabrielle Union (all active in progressive politics) each recorded special phone messages to remind callers about Obamacare eligibility.

“We’re grateful that Scarlett Johansson, Aisha Tyler, and Gabrielle Union are lending their voices to help make sure that Planned Parenthood patients learn about the law and how it will benefit them,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said in a press release.

The recordings—which are being used as hold messages—can be heard when people call certain Planned Parenthood health centers, and they will be played by more in the near future. (Planned Parenthood operates roughly 750 health centers around the country.) The messages are part of the reproductive health organization’s larger national campaign to help women get enrolled. Planned Parenthood provided Mother Jones with audio files of the three phone messages.

Johansson:

Union:

Tyler:

Each actress asks, “Did you know you may be able to enroll in new, more affordable health insurance plans?” and directs listeners to this website for more information.

In recent months, the Obama administration has also been active in celebrity outreach to help pitch the health care law, particularly to young Americans. In July, a cluster of Hollywood celebrities gathered at the White House for a chat on how they could help spread the word. In attendance—along with producers and writers—were big-name entertainers including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson, Michael Cera, and Kal Penn. (Penn served stints as associate director for the Office of Public Engagement in the Obama administration and delivered this speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where Johansson also spoke.)

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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