When Civic Duty Becomes a #Ad

Isabella Philippi Cámara

ip383316@ohio.edu

 

The 2020 presidential elections are coming up and it's all everyone can think about- with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and so many states that were once considered a safe red now having the possibility to turn blue, people are hoping for the best for whatever side they support.  However, with the surge of eligible voters for this election season all across the country, political campaigns and social justice movements are now turning to social media to get every single vote counted. It makes me think, someone who has had US citizenship since my birth but cannot vote for President due to the colonial status of Puerto Rico, what does this say about our political system that we have to rely on influencers to help push a civic duty?

 

Picture source : Vote Like a Madre

In the era of social media, politicians endorsing candidates just won't cut it for this new generation of voters, these campaigns have to find those influential figures that can be role models or seem like your next-door neighbor to help encourage voters to check for their candidate in the voting booth. It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized how far these organizations and campaigns had gone until I saw my friend (who has a few hundred TikTok followers) posted a TikTok video where she filmed her mother making a 'pinky promise' to vote for candidates who'd fight against climate change and wrote in the caption that the video was sponsored by the Latino Victory Project. 

#VoteLikeAMadre (translated to Vote Like A Mother) is one of Latino Victory Project's latest PR initiatives to get Latinx voters involved in fighting climate change through the election of progressive candidates. It's a genius way of involving Gen Z first-time voters within the Latinx community that prioritize the issue of climate change through social media and also involving older Latinxs (who make up 11% of the 2020 electorate) to vote for progressive ideals. 

You also see organizations like Headcount that have teamed up with big-name influencers to get people registered to vote, like YouTuber David Dobrik. Dobrik, who's known for giving away cars to his friends, family, and fans through his biweekly vlogs (which he has stopped producing due to the pandemic),  used that to get his followers registered by giving away 5 Tesla cars if they shared his Instagram post to their story, tagged a friend in the comment and confirmed their voter registration via the link to Headcount in his bio. Those who may not use social media frequently may find this type of PR ridiculous, but Dobrik's post received 3.6 million likes and 1.8 million comments; Headcount pushed for so many to either confirm their registration or for younger voters to get registered, even if they didn't win a fancy car!

And it's not just apolitical or minority-centric organizations that are teaming up with influencers, it's also the main candidates for President. The Biden-Harris campaign has teamed up with Village Marketing, a rising influencer-led marketing agency, to create content to appeal to its younger voters. Whether the former Vice President is talking with rap star Cardi B for ELLE magazine or he's alongside his running mate Senator Harris receiving an endorsement from WWE Superstar and actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (which was his first public political endorsement in his career) on the latter's YouTube channel. Though the Trump campaign hasn't used any influencers in their advertisements and campaign events, rapper Kanye West was a big figure for the President's supporters, before he sought a presidential bid this year. 

It's certainly great to see these campaigns move to modern strategies, and if this election season has taught those in the strategic communications market anything is that PR agencies need to seize the opportunity to influence their fans into doing their civic duty.