If They Wanted To Spare Obamacare From Any More Ridicule...

[Lord Jim]

This probably wasn't the way to do it:

'Pajama Boy' on Obamacare: Will Millennials hear a grownup in a onesie?

'Pajama boy' is going viral, but perhaps not the way its creators, a political nonprofit with ties to President Obama, intended. Millennials may not be as ironic as the ad meisters think they are.



Have you heard about “Pajama Boy”? He’s in an ad tweeted yesterday by a political nonprofit associated with President Obama, wearing what appears to be a plaid onesie while cradling a hot beverage and looking to one side through arched eyebrows.

The point of the ad is to promote Obamacare among young adults. “Wear pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance,” says the ad copy.

The tweet adds its own kicker: “How do you plan to spend the cold days of December?” It includes a link to a website from the group, Organizing for Action, that includes information on how to talk to family members over the holidays about signing up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Conservatives have had lots of hilarity with this ad Wednesday, poking at everything from the guy’s glasses and beverage choice to what some charge is his lack of traditional masculinity.

“A doofus in a plaid onesie drinking hot chocolate – is this really how the Obama administration pictures its supporters?” writes John Hinderaker on the right-leaning "Powerline" blog.

Then, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took a whack at pajama boy in a recent tweet.

Even liberals, who defend the ad overall, think its particular choice of image could be improved.

“Admittedly, the guy in the photo does look a little silly. That’s what happens when you wear a onesie!” writes Elias Isquith on the Salon site.

But we’ve got a question that’s more prosaic. What’s the idea here? How can this, you know, work?

The Obama administration is keen to get young adults – the so-called "young invincibles" – to sign up for Obamacare, of course. Younger people have generally lower health-care costs, and the revenue from their premiums is needed to offset the higher costs incurred by older beneficiaries.

And we get that this ad is meant to be ironic. At least, we think it’s meant to be ironic. That comes across more clearly in a companion ad where “Pajama Boy” is reclining in a leather sofa wearing a Christmas sweater and holiday socks. “And a Happy New Year with health insurance” says the ad’s copy.

But here’s the problem: not that many young adults are ironic, in our experience. Many of the ones that are, are also highly educated and live in urban areas, and are exactly the sort of high-information voters who already know all about the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that individuals buy health insurance.

Plus, true hipsters are likely making fun of this guy. Have you seen hipsters lately? Lots of them wear beards. They look Amish.

Maybe the outlandishness of the portrayal is supposed to make the photo go viral and spread the word by sheer repetition, as if it were a funny cat gif imbued with a serious message. If so, mission accomplished!

However, to us it seems like lots of the advertising aimed at young adults on health care from both sides is condescending. There are the “brosurance” ads from ProgressNow Colorado, which use frat boy images to push the idea that young adults need health care to pay for injuries incurred while drinking, for instance.

On the other side of the issue, there are the infamous “Creepy Uncle Sam” ads, which use a big-head Uncle Sam figure to try and convince young adults that getting insurance through the government is a bad idea.

The actors in these ads are mid-20s. That’s an age where you can be a captain in the Army, or a foreman on a contracting crew, or a physics teacher in a big high school. To many Millennials, ads pushing a serious subject that also feature keg stands or a guy in a scary costume may not connect.

“The problem with these campaigns – with all the Invincible-targeted ads in the Obamacare muddle, actually – is twofold. First they don’t inform all that much.... Second, there’s very little respect for the intended audience,” wrote the Atlantic Wire’s Alex Edelman of the “brosurance” and “Creepy Uncle Sam” campaigns in November.

“Pajama Boy” might not be as far up the condescension scale. It’s still kind of weird. On Buzzfeed, McKay Coppins theorizes that the ambitious young folks in politics that get put in charge of youth outreach efforts don’t really understand their generational peers. They’re in politics, after all.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder ... n-a-onesie

[oldr_n_wsr]

The ACA has the provision for your kids to be covered on the parents plan up to age 26. This guy looks like he would be covered that way. Same with any of the college aged frat boys. Need to target the later 20-somethings and early 30-somethings.

[rubato]

Having completely lost on substance the Right-Wingnuts turn to fluff.


Have to do something to take people's minds off the fact that Obamacare is actually improving US healthcare. And them? they're trying to make it worse. Who is the bad joke on America?


http://acasignups.net/

2.8 million

11.8% of the enrollment projection.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

More horseshit combo numbers, and brain dead shilling...

As of Dec. 1st the number enrolled for the paid exchanges (enrolled, not necessarily paid) that are central to making the heart of this program a success, stood at about 365,000...

Versus the administration's prediction of 1.2 million by that time, and the 7 million (with 2.7 million young and healthy) target by March 31 that must be hit or all of the CBO/ Administration assumptions about pricing go out the window...(with all the numerous implications that will have for the ability of people to afford health care and the economy in general)

Basically what has happened so far is that enrollments rose from catastrophic in October, to dismal in November...

It's going to take a huge lift to turn this thing around.

[oldr_n_wsr]

And doesn't anyone who wants coverage starting Jan 1, 2014 only have a week left to do so? (a deadline that was already pushed back?)

[rubato]

Updated this morning.

3,300,000 And 13% of the projected amount.

918,000 via the exchanges.

It is on track to be the biggest improvement in health care since Medicaid.

Yrs,
Rubato

[Lord Jim]

Wow...

Those numbers are now filled with so many qualifiers, asterisks, and "extrapolations" that this spread sheet has become pretty much meaningless..

(Gee, you'd think a real scientist would notice that...)

The only thing to really go by now are the monthly figures that come out from HHS...(assuming they're not being inflated)

If by the end of December they hit the million mark of enrollments in the paid system, that means they will still have 6 million to go over the following three months, and will still be running far behind the Administration's own projections for the pace they expected to get to the 7 million target...

That's a very odd way to define "on track"....

(On top of that, these numbers are at some point going to have to be adjusted to take out those people who enroll but wind up unenrolled because they don't start their payments...)

[rubato]

Poor LJ, trying desperately to defend the GOP "Let them die" plan.


So far the ACA has been a relative success. We will see as time goes on what the effects are.


yrs,
rubato

[Crackpot]

relative to what? Being pistol whipped?

[oldr_n_wsr]

Is that covered?

[TPFKA@W]

I looked at the website. It's expensive, no way around it. Either high premiums or high deductibles.

We need real universal heath care not this freaking mess.

[Crackpot]

You're spoiled by working in the medical field.

[Sue U]

We need real universal heath care not this freaking mess.

Amen, sister.

[Long Run]

Which meaning of "spoiled" are you intending?

[Crackpot]

I haven't run into many working in the health field that didn't have some pretty damn good insurance. I'm thankful I get it by osmosis. (My wife is a nurse)

[TPFKA@W]

My insurance comes through my husband's job. I know many uninsured nurses and aids. Depends on what the nurse does I suppose.

[Gob]

We need real universal heath care not this freaking mess.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a goddamn commie sympathiser here..."

[rubato]

relative to what? Being pistol whipped?

Relative to being the worst in the G-20.

yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

We need real universal heath care not this freaking mess.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a goddamn commie sympathiser here..."

I wonder how differently things might have gone had he just waxed his eyebrows.

[Lord Jim]

We need real universal heath care not this freaking mess.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a goddamn commie sympathiser here..."

I wonder how differently things might have gone had he just waxed his eyebrows.

That still wouldn't have fixed the nasal whiney voice or The Five O'Clock Shadow...