Celebs star in anti-poverty ad

An anti-poverty organisation in the US is airing a public-service announcement that features actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Alfre Woodard and Julia Roberts, singer Toby Keith and others urging viewers to vote to fight Aids and Third World poverty.

The 30-second spot for ONE.org is narrated by Matt Damon as the camera pans down a line of celebrities and regular Americans waiting against a spare white wall to vote.

The trick is in its ordinariness. The camera treats everyone in the shot the same and lingers on no one. No celebrity is identified.

“Saving lives in the world’s poorest countries. Winning the fight against global Aids and extreme poverty,” Damon says. “There aren’t two sides to these issues. There is only one. Please vote.

"ONE.org.”

To make its non-partisan point, the ad features former Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry chatting with former Bush financial strategist Jack Oliver.

Both men have made fighting poverty a special cause.

Both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee featured the ad on their websites this week.

The ad is appearing until election day on November 7 on MTV Network channels as well as Comedy Central and News Corporation’s broadcast and cable channels.

Also appearing in the ad are evangelical Christian pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling The Purpose Driven Life, and Bishop Charles Blake, pastor of 24,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ.

Clooney appears next to his father, Nick Clooney, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004.

In a separate video clip on the ONE.org website, George Clooney encourages voters to question candidates about their positions on how to deal with poverty and Aids.

“We’re being raised to believe in this society that says if you just pick yourself up by your bootstraps, if you just make a decision to do well, then you can do well,” Clooney said. “But they don’t have bootstraps. They don’t have anything.”