Health Reform Propaganda from Hollywood and Vine

Divided We Fail is taking a page out of the propaganda scripts of World War II and Ronald Reagan: they're going straight to Hollywood.

Divided We Fail is a health reform advocacy group that brings together parties who traditionally have broken much bread together, with each stakeholder organization archetype emphasized by me in quotes: the AARP, the Business Roundtable ("Big Business"), the National Federation of Independent Business ("The Voice of Small Business"), and the Service Employees International Union ("Labor").

Together, their mission is to bring rational dialogue into the U.S. health reform debate. I've written about them in Health Populi here.

Divided We Fail has engaged with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) and the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) to put together a campaign that's compelling and conversation-starting.



In this video, you'll hear Morgan Freeman, Reese Witherspoon, Joaquin Phoenix, Ben Affleck, Garth Brooks, Dakota Fanning (who can't yet vote but as a youth has a huge stake in the health reform debate), Jeremy Piven, and Eva Mendes. It was directed by Tony Goldwyn, descendant of the famous film family. And, with music by the wundercomposer Philip Glass.

The concluding words of the video are, "Together, we can do anything. But Divided, We Fail."

Here's the press release explaining more about the campaign.

In the PR, Tony Goldwyn says, "Going forward, the entertainment industry will work to get these issues front and center for everyone by doing what we do best, telling the stories of real Americans who are struggling with these problems."

Health Populi's Hot Points: The Hollywood team is planning to embed health reform messages on television and in films. According to USA Today, one of the producers of Law & Order: SVU, is a pediatrician who is keen to to address these issues via TV. Entertainment is How We Live in America. I'm hopeful that this venture can get us all talking about health reform not so much in black and white, red and blue, but Together.