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'Creepy Uncle Sam' returns! Will Halloween ad scare Millennials off Obamacare?

Creepy Uncle Sam, a creation of a conservative political activist group, is meant to scare young adults away from enrolling in Obamacare. Now he's appearing in a Halloween-themed spooktacular.

By Peter Grier, Staff writer

Creepy Uncle Sam is back! And this time, he鈥檚 starring in a Halloween-themed spooktacular that鈥檚 meant to scare young adults away from enrolling in Obamacare.

Oh, you鈥檙e not familiar with Creepy Uncle Sam鈥檚 body of work? We鈥檒l step back a bit and fill you in: He鈥檚 an actor who wears an Uncle Sam suit and an oversize, grinning head that makes him look like a freaky, patriotic garden gnome. The character is a creation of Generation Opportunity, a conservative political activist group aimed at the Millennial Generation.

He debuted in September in two ads: Creepy Uncle Sam appears at a crucial moment in health examinations, scaring the young folk who are about to be subject to that. The point was to emphasize Generation Opportunity鈥檚 belief that the Affordable Care Act injects too much government into the health-care marketplace.

Critics complained the treatment was so heavy-handed that the ads might have the effect of turning young people away from conservatives. For instance, in one ad Creepy Uncle Sam, snapping a speculum, approaches a young woman in an examination room. In another, he approaches a young man under similar circumstances, while snapping a rubber glove.

Creepy, yes. Also widely viewed. These two ads have been seen a combined 3.5 million times on YouTube. Their number of thumbs-down 鈥渄islikes鈥 on the site outnumbers their 鈥渓ikes鈥 by about 25 percent.

The just-released sequel to these efforts might be called 鈥淐reepy Uncle Sam 2: This Time, He Wants Your Candy.鈥 It is longer and features a more complicated plot than the original videos.

It opens with a young man named Chad who's watching a horror movie at home, alone. An ad comes on in which a mustachioed hard-sell artist pushes Obamacare. The ad gets louder. Chad can鈥檛 turn it off! He pulls the plug on his TV. Then the doorbell rings ...

We won鈥檛 spoil the whole thing in case you want to watch it. Suffice to say that it ends with Creepy Uncle Sam at the door, opening his bag wide, while Chad recoils in horror.

Will this work? Well, it鈥檚 not as overbearing as the medical exam videos, so in that sense it鈥檚 probably less likely to actually turn people off. It鈥檚 kind of long, though: Our inner Spielberg says it could have been edited.

And at this point, Obamacare鈥檚 own enrollment troubles would seem to be more of an obstacle to Millennials鈥 enrollment than any ad-induced second thoughts. Given that context, perhaps Generation Opportunity should have just kept Creepy Uncle Sam in his box and let media coverage of those troubles continue undisturbed.

There鈥檚 also some question about the group鈥檚 assertions concerning health insurance costs.

Generation Opportunity鈥檚 main point is that Millennials should 鈥渙pt out鈥 of Obamacare and its government-run insurance exchanges and buy their coverage on the existing open market.

That means they鈥檇 forgo any government subsidies for which they might be eligible if they bought through the exchanges. But the FAQ at Generation Opportunity鈥檚 Optout.org says not to worry about that.

鈥淸M]any people will not be eligible and it still won鈥檛 be enough to make it a good deal for you,鈥 the FAQ says.

That statement is simply inaccurate, critics say. It depends entirely on personal circumstances and geography and varies widely.

鈥淸T]hat advice is not based on math,鈥 wrote Allie Jones at The Atlantic Wire earlier this month.

One big point of this struggle is that Obamacare needs to attract a high percentage of currently uninsured healthy young people to make its own math work. They are relatively healthy, and their premiums are needed to offset the costs of others.