One of my favorite movies is The Truman Show which starred Jim Carrey as a person trapped in a world which never actually existed for the rest of the world to watch as entertainment. Think of it as the most extreme reality TV show where from birth to death - the person is the subject (and they never know about it).

The premise is based loosely off Plato's allegory of the cave - another one of my favorites.

So when I first read about John McCain's plan to create a "reality-type" TV show for his campaign, I was more than a little interested in seeing how it turned out.

From the Los Angeles Times in January:

McCain is planning his own Web version of reality TV. He has hired a videographer to record behind-the-scenes campaign moments of the senator in relaxed settings. "What the campaign can do in a Web video is show a more personal side of the candidate," said Spencer Whelan, who works on McCain's online communications team.

Well, today is that day. At least the day that I'm beginning to see how they are going to implement the medium in to their messaging strategy. Thanks to my subscription to John McCain's YouTube Channel, I received a notification about new videos added by McCain's team regarding his visit to New Hampshire.

Straight Talk Express in Manchester and Concord, NH

Scenes from the Road: Lebanon, NH

McCain's eGuy, Christian Ferry, tells me in an email that, "This trip through Iowa and New Hampshire was John McCain’s first bus tour of the 2008 campaign; we wanted to capture and allow people to experience the enthusiasm and excitement of the road show and there is no better way to do that than video. We posted pictures, journals, and video from the Straight Talk Express, town hall meetings and other stops along the road.

I'll spoon out a helping of porridge to Christian for taking advantage of the medium appropriately. I'm impressed and I hope I see more behind-the-scenes shots like this from the rest of the field in the very near future.

After all, as Joe Trippi said at the IPDI conference, we'll never see a Presidential campaign like Howard Dean's where the rest of the field ceded the modern world to the other campaign. It's just too powerful.

These spots were not made for TV. They were shot with hand-held cameras, edited quickly, and added to YouTube. They were made for us. And that's very encouraging.

Revolution.