NYTimes.com: Interacting With the Reader

Kaitlyn Crist
Kaitlyn.Crist@gmail.com
@Kaitlyn_Crist

With the election drawing to a close, Ohioans and residents of other swing states are marking their calendars till the end of November 6th -- the end of  a bombardment of political ads and the "ad" nauseum that we have all been feeling since June (at least for another four years).

The New York Times is trying to ease some of the pain by making political ads more interactive and fun, and not just background noise while we check our Facebooks.

This week, they published an interactive article featuring three top advertising executives giving their top pics for both pro-Obama and pro-Romney ads.

A pick by Ad-Execs as a top Pro-Romney ad. 

This article not only picks out the best advertisements by those who do advertisements for a living, but also discusses what works in each one.

The article works well with voters/readers because it gives them a whole new perspective on the droves of political ads we have all seen a hundred times over (I swear there are political ads in my sleep, "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this dream").

It shows readers what they should be looking for in a good political ad. For every 100 ads out there, there is one great one that deserves to be pait attention to, and this article points them out.

  2 out of 3 ad executives agreed that this is the best political advertisement put out by the Obama campaign. 

With days left in the election, we will see hours worth of advertisements and now is the time to pay attention, especially if you're still undecided.

This article helps point out what works so well in political ads, and what the candidates should have been focusing on this entire election.

Plus, I'm a sucker for any online story with "interactive" in the headline. It's the way of the news future, and great for the Times to start embracing it.

One week left NYT, keep turning out great multimedia content. It's what the voters need.