For Immediate Release
January 1, 2008
Contact: Chris Black
press@geniusrocket.com
Tel: 202.333.3853
Cell 202.302.4748

BETHESDA, Md. – Stephen Colbert, the hottest presidential candidate on the Internet, may not be on any ballot yet but he is already a winner in the GeniusRocket presidential primary.

Colbert, the host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, has been entered into the GeniusRocket Primary competition where every candidate is a guaranteed winner.

GeniusRocket is sponsoring a presidential primary with $1,000 cash prizes for the best 30-second positive campaign ads made by members of the GeniusRocket creative community.

"With more than 1.3 million friends on Facebook, Stephen Colbert is no laughing matter," said Mark Walsh, CEO of GeniusRocket, a new company that links advertisers to creative talent on the Internet for customized user-generated advertising. "We are confident Colbert’s fans will have no trouble finding something positive to say about his candidacy."

Each entry must be an affirmative statement of support for one of the declared presidential contenders. No negative ads will be accepted. For this competition, GeniusRocket is following the advice of Colbert’s mother who reportedly told her son: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

A separate competition is being held for each of the 18 declared Democratic and Republican candidates, so ads for Democratic candidate Barack Obama compete against other Obama ads while ads for Republican Mitt Romney compete against Romney entries. In this way, each candidate "wins."

GeniusRocket was founded by Internet industry pioneers and veterans from the Howard Dean campaign, the first presidential campaign to effectively use the Internet to organize supporters and raise record amounts of campaign cash. GeniusRocket is a unique platform that brings real advertising and marketing challenges to its creative community of filmmakers, actors, cinematographers, photographers and designers in "Requests for Brilliance." Cash awards go to the creators who best meet the creative brief.

Previous Press Releases

Every Candidate Wins in the GeniusRocket Primary
October 25, 2007

GeniusRocket Creates Virtual Madison Avenue
October 17, 2007