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Viral ads out Republicans as the creepy weirdos they are. I'm Jim Drastic. I'm Tiffany Drastic. I'm Nick Canson. And today on the Dangerous Ones, Republicans have officially gone full creeper. Trump's VA just proposed a new rule that would eliminate nearly all abortion services and related counseling for veterans and their dependents, including cases of rape and incest. Disgusting. for our veterans. These guys uh want to crawl into our bedrooms, our doctor's offices, and probably our damn Netflix cues. Uh but our guest today is fighting back with viral political ads that expose the crazy cristofascists for what they are, creepy weirdos that want to make our most personal decisions for us. Joe Jacobson is the founder of and CEO of Progress Action Fund, the political action committee that makes these ads. These spots are bold, dramatic, and effective, and they don't play it safe like most ad makers on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, it is our pleasure to welcome to The Dangerous Ones, founder and CEO of Progress Action Fund, Joe Jacobson. Joe, welcome. Appreciate you. Thanks for having me. You bet, Joe. We've had a couple of you. We featured a couple of uh Progress Action Funds uh videos on our show and every time we do we get a huge response. Oh my god, people call all the time. We just got a bunch of calls on the hotline. The hotline. Yeah. And also if you want to call 5032124600. Let us know what you think. Um but each one of your ads always feature the creepy Republican congressman, which I love by the way. We love the congressman. Oh man. So creepy. Oh my god. I love to hate. I should and I feel sorry for that actor too, man. like, but you know, he's like probably like the coolest guy in real life, you know. Is he like a good guy? He he he is a great guy. Um he said he's played, let's see, pedophiles, businessmen, and Republican congressman. And a Republican congressman is the worst of them all. So, he's a comedian, too. Or a truth teller. No, he's good. There's a big It's a like a ven diagram and like Republican congressman like fits all of them perfectly. It's a great description. And so talk a little bit about why you decided to use him as the centerpiece, use that character as the centerpiece of your of your ads. Well, it's brand identity for one. Uh he's our Jake from State Farm, except where you don't want him to be. I think in the private sector, you have all these characters like Flo or the Gecko or, you know, Ronald McDonald. He's basically Ronald McDonald. Um and he's in every ad because people remember him. Like I I wouldn't be on if you know we had this recurring, you know, no recurring stuff going on at all. Like I think most political ads are just scary voice over. You know, bad things are going to happen. But the good thing about Steve, our actor, is that he shows you what's going to happen. He uh we're not just telling you something bad is going to happen. Our character is showing you whether he's, you know, deporting your girlfriend or taking away your birth control. He's literally showing you what Republicans want to do. And that's why it's powerful and that's why he's so good. And Joe, I know your ads target a younger male demographic, and we know that we're losing the Democrats are losing young men. Why Why have you chosen to target your ads at at that demographic and what's your strategy? We've definitely lost this demographic for sure. They voted for Trump by 30 more points than they did in uh 2020 from 2024. So, we absolutely have to win them back. And the reason we're focused on it is because Kyle Richards and myself, Kyle's my deputy, we're both 31. So, we have a unique understanding of how to win over the demo and uh we think that the Democratic party definitely has an age issue. So, you know, the more we can do to uplift voices from every community, you know, it's critical that we uplift voices from black communities to win over black voters, Latino voices to win over Latino voices. And uh similarly, you know, we want to be right on the forefront trying to win back young men since we are of the demo. And it's just so important we do so because for example in Michigan uh the number of voters who flipped uh that were young men to Trump was greater than the overall total of uh voters who actually allowed Trump to win the election. So win back these voters um and then we could easily win the um elections coming up here. And that's one of the things I appreciate about the ads is, you know, having since learned uh about them is that you guys specifically uh target with them and you test with them, right? You do you test to make sure that they are working. A lot of people just make ads and throw them out and go like, I don't know. That's what we did. Yeah. You know, that's what 11 Films did. We did it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But um but the other thing is you get such a gut punch when you watch them. You know, as a filmmaker, I watch these ads and what I love about them is they're cinematic. They look uh they look, you know, they look fantastic and and I swear to God, you cannot watch one of these ads and not come away with a [ __ ] reaction. Yeah, you guys do not [ __ ] around and just I really appreciate that. Yeah, and we've been getting a lot of calls. Yeah, we did. We have a a couple people called um women called that are abuse survivors and it really just hit everybody in the chest. Really a gut punch in a good way. And um we'll play those. Yeah, we'll play those ads. We'll play those calls. And you know you've made a good ad if you're getting uh reaction. But so yeah, I mean this is a lot of setup. Let's show our audience a couple a couple of your ads. So this first one is called Republicans watching your daughter. And uh it's a this is one of those gut punches. It's a very dramatic ad. Yeah. And also u before we get to that really quick, we want to go we want to ask folks uh what topics would you like to see Progress Action Fund cover? Uh let us know right now in the comments. You can also email us at shoutthedanger ones.com or give us a call at 503-212-4600. What would you like to see them cover and we'll forward that on to Joe. But first, here's Republicans watching your daughter. I can't believe this. My daughter was raped and you're not going to do anything? I'm sorry. They'll put us all in prison if we do the procedure. He's right. I'm your Republican congressman. We've banned abortion. No exceptions. She's just 12 years old. I'm not letting you destroy her life. I won the last election, so it's my decision. I'm just going to watch your daughter and make sure she doesn't do anything illegal. Oh, Jesus Christ. Every time I see that one, I'm like, "Oh, man. Creepy, dude." Every time. Talk a little bit about making that ad and uh the uh the the turnaround with it. Yeah. Yeah, what we like to do is we like to shoot uh two ads in one day. We try to make the best use of everybody's money. We have a set we use and the other ad we shot on that day was where the Republican congressman tells an old man that, you know, he can't have Medicare and he's going to die. But, uh, don't worry, uh, we're still covering Viagra and I still need a refill. We like to be efficient with our medications and with our ads. And what's really exciting is uh um you know the Washington Post in our testing um highlighted that this was one of the most effective ads of the 2023 elections. We launched it um to win the Ohio ballot measure uh to protect reproductive rights and to um win a Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania. And it just goes to show that when you show people what's going on, it's powerful. If we just said that Republicans were trying to uh, you know, take away your right to choose, that doesn't resonate as much as seeing a little girl on screen who is a survivor of sexual assault crying in a bed while her dad is pleading with her. Like that's just like uh tearful. And one of our actually said um that looks exactly like my daughter's best friend. So like very relatable for peoplebody knows somebody in their their community who's you know 10 11 years old if it's you know a uh your daughter's friend or somebody on the you know the softball team you know we want everybody to be safe and that's why these ads are powerful and and and really quick and and also that Republican kidnappers one we featured on the show that got a huge response and it's so I mean with what's going on these days you know um I mean that just hits you right at home right there when they're just dragging the that woman off, you know. Um, and I can imagine from a from a your target demo perspective, this one of the of the girl in the hospital bed. Yeah. You know, as a as a young man in the 18 to 30 age bracket, maybe they don't have a kid yet, but they can put themselves in the shoes of the dad cuz maybe they're thinking about that step of their life in in the future. And they also can look at the at the little girl and think, "Oh, little sister, you know, little cousin, that kind of thing." So, it can hit from hit hit from a couple different angles. Yeah, you're you're 100% uh uh right right on the money because like we try to make it personal for people like with the you know the girl who's Latina who gets kidnapped um you know not it's just such a sympathetic character because especially for like men 18 to 30 you know like a lot of them are single and living in their mom's basement. So when they get a girlfriend if she's you know she might get kidnapped by the government. So like that's just like literally [ __ ] happening in our in our in our country right now. and just showing people and trying to make it relatable. Like I think the Abbrego Garcia issue is really interesting and important to highlight. But like for your average young man, you know, what's like more likely to get sympathy like that guy or like a beautiful Latina who like is being your girlfriend? Like it's just we try to make it as real for you and as personally appealing because like you know, [ __ ] say what you want, but uh uh well we do casting for a reason. Yeah. What I love most about your ads is it really just highlights how bizarre everything has become. God, right? And how normalized it all is until you see one of your ads and then you're like, "This is [ __ ] up." Yeah. The the one I the really quick the one where oh my god I hate the [ __ ] where he's like I was like, "Oh, we've reached a new level now, haven't we?" Okay. You know, I think the interesting thing is that like uh our ads are similar to South Park except they're not cartoons. Like if you saw that with South Park, you'd be like, "Oh, I mean like Mr. Garrison like uh had a sex change then like had a reverse sex change and then became Donald Trump for president." And like pretty common place stuff for South Park, but I think people are like outraged with that contact left and right because we're actually like visually showing it. So all this stuff is happening our society. People are getting kidnapped. Republicans are serving their sugar daddies and little girls are not allowed to have control of their bodies. But because we're showing it, we get the reaction. There's something visceral about seeing it with your two eyes. that's actually human beings rather than hearing it or a cartoon and and let's show another one while we're out of here. So, this next one is called Republicans in Your Bedroom Part Two. There's a Republicans in your bedroom part one also. And please go to the PAF uh YouTube uh site, which we will include in the descriptions, uh and go check out all their ads. But this is Republicans in your bedroom part two. This is funnier. Uh I I laughed out loud. Can you set this one up a little bit? Uh Joe, what was this about? Absolutely. So, um, you know, for young men, we were trying to win them over in 2024. And this had actually moved the needle, uh, about three to four points for young men in battleground swing states. And, uh, the reason being is if you're a young man and you're not ready for kids, you know, you don't want the government telling you when you should have a family. It's pretty Orwellian, you know, so much for states rights because you're having the Republican party try to, you know, ban abortion and ban birth control. If you believe that life starts at conception, then any form of birth control is out the window. But, uh, it's interesting. Republicans and all these MAGA people, um, you know, they want, they're pro-life, except when it happens to them. I can't tell you how many Republican politicians and their mistresses have been caught and they're desperate for birth control. The irony is hilarious. Is that true? Here it is right now. Progress action fund. Republicans in your bedroom. Watch this. Oh god, the condom broke. Oh, I have plan B in the bathroom. Great. I'm going to go get that now. Sorry, you can't use that. Who are you? I'm your Republican congressman. Now that we're in charge, we banned Plan B. No, you can't. You can't do this. I can't have a kid right now. I won the last election, so it's my decision. Now, let's get back in there so we can give her the news. Daddy. The one thing I love about that is it's it's, you know, Yeah. because you forget about like the dude part of it, right? It's like, you know, it's like, no, it's not just girls, guys. You spend all this time punishing girls and women, not realizing like, oh [ __ ] our sons are affected, too. That's exactly right. No, absolutely. Yeah. I Hey, I'm I'm an old man and I don't want any more kids. So, it appeals to appeals to everybody for sure. So, I have to ask you, what is coming out next? I'm sure you're not going to tell us exactly, but do you have some new stuff coming out? Absolutely. Well, I'm based here in California and we have Prop 50 coming up. Uh Texas has gerrymandered their state heavily. It's unprecedented. You're you know, you can't do it mid decade, but Donald Trump told him to do it and they're they're bowing down to daddy. So, as such, uh California needs to uh combat that and and negate it. So, we have a an ad starring you're a Republican congressman where he's going to be encouraging people to vote against uh Prop 50 because he's going to be, you know, Right. Right. Right. Right. So, uh there's a bunch of reasons why he'll be saying that and uh we'll be releasing that ad here shortly. Um interestingly enough, he's also going to do it um in Spanish as well. All right. We'll have an English version, but because there's a bunch of Latino voters we're trying to earn the support of, uh, we're going to have him do a Spanish language version of the ad, which is going to be perfect because, uh, the last thing you want to vote for is some a-hole gringo butchering your language. Um, we think not only is what he's saying on screen going to be despicable, but uh, his his Spanish is not going to be uh, uh, very good to say the least. I was I was gonna ask his deceived speak Spanish, but he doesn't need to for this one. That's horribly. Just get him holding up like I love taco bowls or something. It's it's it's unbelievable that this is where come to. But I think it's it's it's it's a South Park sketch and basically we're um creating a South Park sketch except with actual real life people and it's really fun. I love that. I'm curious, uh, Joe, what is the reaction you've gotten from the Democratic party? Uh, you know, people on the inside, what what what feedback have you gotten? Are they like, listen, man, this is a little too dark? Because I I I'm a big fan like that here. Yeah, I'm a big fan of kicking the [ __ ] Dorian. I mean, you know, nice guy gloves are off. Well, there's a lot of noise out there and there's these ads are rising above that. Yeah, for sure. I'm curious what what feedback have you gotten? Yeah, we've got people whether it's uh publicly or you know behind closed doors um typically say you know great things like y'all do. I mean I guess I'm being my own sick fan over here. So the one thing I would say is like the biggest critique we get from you know more mainstream folks is that we love this. We just can't get approval to help you out with it. I think that's the biggest problem because everybody loves that we do it, but if you have to get, you know, Chuck Schumer sign off to do something like this, then hold on, let me get my hello. Shut my glasses. Yeah. Yeah. That is too much for us. It's too much. Like maybe that was too of a Bernie impression, but it was a little Bernie. Yeah. you know, uh, you know, if you if you need to get sign off from people who, um, think we're living in the tip O'Neal era of can't we just get along, then you're not going to get sign off for it. And I totally understand the constraints that a lot of people are dealing with. I have empathy for that. But I think we need to, you know, have a uh um a call to Jesus moment. Yeah. And because we haven't had that, like just the ads I'm seeing everybody put out is typically boring 30 secondond stock footage ads. um my test will you know I have I have don't get me started but like David Shore and you know the whole democratic testing apparatus um it serves a lot of purposes but if you're forcing somebody to watch an ad for 30 seconds you know you probably won't get a good result at the end of the day one way or another but when you're competing in the real world with basketball Kardashians you know real lives of Mormon wives of course you're not going to remember it so the way we come up with our content is not only does it test well, but it's also shocking and memorable. Like when Trump said, you know, they're eating the pets, you know, he didn't test that beforehand, but it got everybody's attention. That's right. Walk that fine line of testing, well, which our ads do, and getting your attention because if we're winning the argument on this podcast, you know, that's great, but we also need to win the argument among, you know, my volleyball friends who don't give two shits about what's going on. Right. Right. Well, you know who doesn't need uh approval to help you out, and that is our audience. So, I'm curious, if our audience wanted to help you out and and really uh support ads that move the needle, how could they do that? Well, thank you for that. And also, shout out to you in 11 Films. I mean, the the uh Republicans killing your wife ad, like when y'all posted that, it got 45 million views. Like, that was that was big. So, you know, team team effort 100%. I'm very thankful. Let's just let's just get the [ __ ] word out. That's right. That's right. Very thankful. Um, you go to progressactionf fun.com to contribute. Um, that's the best way. You know, it costs money to produce these ads. It costs money to uh get Steve to learn Spanish. So, I can't wait for that. Contribute a few pesos, a few dollars if you can, and uh that's really how we can make these ads. So, uh, bless you all. We appreciate it. So, yeah. So, we'll put that link in the description. We'll also put it on the screen right now if you want to help out with ads that actually move the needle. They cause a reaction. Help help out with a few dollars if you can. Uh and uh Joe, when you come out with a new ad, we're going to show it on here. We want to be a friend a friend of these ads because uh well, first of all, we're we're filmmakers as well and we just enjoy uh good [ __ ] that stirs people up out there because a lot of people make ads because they're talking to consultants and they're not making them for the American people. And you guys are really good at that. So, I really appreciate that. That's That's exactly right. So, please come back anytime and let us know when you're going to launch new ad. Yes, sir. Let's make ads great again. That's right. I love it. Let us know what you think in the comments. Also, let us know what you think at shoutthedangeres.com or give us a call at 503212-4600. Remember, our comment question of the day is, "What subjects would you like Progress Action Fund to cover?" 503212-4600. You can leave up to a five-minute message 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you can remain anonymous. Wow, man. Yeah, but he's fantastic. He's great. Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and he's from the Target demo, you know, like Yeah. So, so I love what he and Kyle are putting together and they're super creative and I the the when he talked about like Flow and the G the Geico Gecko and stuff like that, like the idea of this recurring character, it's so smart. I don't know why more people on the left aren't like picking up on that. I don't think they're applying advertising to politics and like it's 2025 everybody. We got a game show host as a president. Like can we get our branding great? I should have thought about that with 11 films. I should have just put Tiffany in everything. You know what I mean? God lord%. Why? Next time. Damn it. Hey guys, thank you so much for watching. Um be safe out there. Get into good trouble and remember we are all the dangerous ones.

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