GOP group mocks ACA during 'SNL'

The conservative advocacy group YG Network is planning to kick off an ad campaign this weekend mocking President Barack Obama’s efforts to move public opinion in favor of the Affordable Care Act, strategists with the group told POLITICO.

The nonprofit organization, founded by former staffers for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, will air its first anti-“Obamacare” spot during NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the strategists said.


The commercial features actors, cast as advertising agents, scheming ineptly about how they can market the health care law – an allusion to how both executive agencies and the group Organizing for Action are hoping to promote the ACA over the summer.

“People like ‘health care’ and people like ‘free.’ Mash ‘em together – ‘free health care’!” one supposed PR consultant suggests in one YG Network video posted online. Another moans: “We’re supposed to sell this junk?”

The release of the spot comes just over a month after OFA unveiled its first television ad touting the benefits of the health care law. That commercial featured the stories of Americans helped by the law and concluded with the tag line: “Better coverage and lower costs: that’s what Obamacare means for them.”

After the opposing YG Network ad debuts on “SNL,” the same spot will appear Sunday on “Meet the Press,” and on targeted primetime programs such as “Under the Dome,” “America’s Got Talent, “Mistresses” and “The Bachelorette.”

There will also be a sustained digital advertising effort, strategists said, both in Washington D.C. and competitive congressional districts in Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas.

All told, the pricetag for the PR push will run into the six figures.

Chris Bond, YG Network’s communications director, said the irreverent approach to Obamacare messaging was an indication of how the group intends to communicate over the coming months.

“YG Network’s innovative approach is an important step in bringing this conservative message to new audiences throughout the country, particularly those Americans being targeted by the Obama Administration’s misleading ad campaign as they seek to implement their deeply flawed health care policy,” Bond said.