By Maggie Downs
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Former Cincinnatian Mark Wolfe spent about 24 hours creating the winning animation ad for a popular online contest.
Political activist organization MoveOn.org Voter Fund sponsored the "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest in December, asking entrants to challenge the policies of President George W. Bush and his administration.
Wolfe, 24, a graphic designer, and Ty Pierce, 25, a videographer from Bucyrus, won the animation category with their entry, "What I Been Up To ..." Both now live in Columbus.
"The main reason for doing this is to point out some of the flaws in the administration - to educate people," said Wolfe, a 1997 Sycamore High School gradWolfe's family, parents Suzie and Ralph and sister Stacy, live in Symmes Township.
In Wolfe's 30-second ad, "Hail to the Chief" plays while a Bush cartoon stands at a podium and says: "I thought I would take a minute to let y'all know what I been up to."
He continues, "I turned the biggest economy in history into the biggest deficit in history. And lost over 21/2 million jobs. My good friend, Ken Lay, was in charge of that whole Enron thing. I invaded two countries, made a joke of the United Nations, broke the Geneva conventions, and I still managed to take more vacation than any other president."
The Bush figure summarizes, "Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. 9-11, 9-11. God bless America."
A panel of political pundits and celebrities, including James Carville, Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, helped choose the winners. More than 110,000 people also weighed in by rating the more than 1,000 ads posted online. About 2.9 million viewer ad ratings were submitted.
"The hardest part was trimming down the script," said Wolfe. "We had a lot to say."
They were given the top honors at an awards ceremony in New York last week.
Wolfe's father said he isn't surprised by his son's ad.
"We always taught our children to be open thinkers," he said.
The overall winner of the contest, "Child's Pay," by Charlie Fisher, 38, of Denver, focuses on the trillion-dollar deficit.
See the 26 finalists online.
E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com
