(It’s quite a powerful ad. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Equality California has launched a huge ad campaign to educate the public on Marriage Equality (great 60 second ad after the flip):

An above the fold story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle noted:

“This campaign is about changing the climate in California around this issue,” Seth Kilbourn, Equality California’s political and policy director, said as he sat in his upper Market Street office.

He cites polls showing Californians almost evenly split on the issue. A 2000 poll by the Policy Institute of California found that voters opposed same-sex marriage 55 to 38 percent; a poll by the same group last year showed a major shift: 48 to 46 percent.

This campaign is intended to move the state “over the tipping point,” Kilbourn said. “We wanted to connect to the people of California on an emotional level, on a level they can identify with.”

This powerful ad is going up Thursday and has substantial resources:

The Ring drive – which has received $400,000 from Jim Hormel, the San Francisco philanthropist and former U.S ambassador to Luxembourg; a $500,000 commitment from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund; and $500,000 from an anonymous donor – “is gently challenging the people of California to imagine what it would be like if they couldn’t get married to the person they loved.”

Legal rights and benefits, many of which are covered by domestic partner laws here and in other states, are important, Kilbourn added, but this campaign aims at the heart.

“It’s putting the people we’re trying to talk to, the undecided people, into our shoes. We gave them something they can identify with, a wedding. The ad firm really felt that if you’re going to try to connect with a certain group of people, you need to talk about them, not yourself.”

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