I had an idea on 2 commercials that could easily explain to people why higher income tax on the rich would make sense. It involves Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Could you see either of these making a difference? You will only know if you read below!
Commercial one, Warren Buffett is standing there as the commercial begins, and says "Hello, I'm Warren", pauses "don't know me? I'm one of the richest people in America". Bill Gates walks in and introduces himself, "you dont know me either? I'm the richest guy in the world!"
They can state their wealth, and the amount of taxes they paid (you can use Forbes and IRS info). They then state what they have remaining afterwards, and why they wouldnt mind paying a higher percent. Show how much they have left in 5% increments up to 50% tax rates. Then they could say how this could help people with things such as infrastructure, teachers, police, healthcare, etc. Maybe the commercial could end with them both saying "But what would we know about this?" in a sarcastic way.
Commercial two, they are sitting at a table with 2 other people as a pizza is brought to them. The waitress could serve them pieces equal to the pie graph representation of the wealth of the richest 1% (divided in half for 2 people) to Bill and Warren. Person 3 gets the piece of the next 9% of richest families, and the last guy gets the small 90% piece. One of them can question why they got so much at once (Warren?), and the other could comment on how they dont really need that much (Bill?), and they INSIST THAT THEY GIVE SOME BACK FOR THE OTHER PEOPLE at the table. Talk about the percentages (superimpose them over the pizza slices?).
To me, this imagery should be very easy for people to understand, especially those who just blindly follow the republican talking points of "Taxing the rich is bad, m'kay". If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were to come out and do something like that, it would be awesome.
An example of these percentages as a pie chart is at
Taken from http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/...
edited to add that chart