Mediaite-"Lean Forward"; Spike Lee's Brilliant New MSNBC Ad Campaign

Spike Lee: Leif Erik Nygards

(Story reported by Hillary Busis for Mediaite.com)

We learned in August that Spike Lee would be helming MSNBC’s latest ad campaign. Now, Lee’s first two commercial spots have been posted online. The ads are slick and upbeat, implying the news network’s progressive leanings without overtly declaring a political stance.

The first ad, titled “Declaration of Forward,” is a montage of celebratory clips—a marching band performing, a couple dancing at their wedding—that plays as a male voice intones, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. But all men and women have certain inalienable rights. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and the freedom to believe that while history has gotten us this far”—at this point, we see a clip of the Obama family on Election Night 2008—”our best days are still ahead.” It ends with a series of pictures of different Americans—racially diverse, young, old, male, female—that flash by quickly before the campaign’s motto fills the screen: “Lean Forward.”

(Click here to read the full story on the Mediaite.com website. Below is the video for one of the Spike Lee-directed clips for MSNBC's new ad campaign, "Lean Forward".)