The anti-PSA

You all know I'm skeptical about celebrity outreach in politics. Celebs can be very useful, but it all depends on how you use them. Generally speaking, putting them in PSAs on cable or network television is the least effective use of a celebrity spokesperson. There's no evidence that these types of PSAs drive voter turnout, and more often than not it results in a media narrative more focused on the celebrity than on the reasons behind higher youth political participation.

At the same time, celebrity involvement is hugely helpful in building a brand name for an organization, and organization can cash in on that higher level of brand recognition to register larger numbers of voters. That's certainly part of what lies behind the huge voter reg numbers that Rock the Vote and Declare Yourself have racked up this cycle.

This PSA from Why Tuesday cleverly highlights that tension between celebrity branding and effective messaging that I find so frustrating. I don't know that it will be any more effective than a normal PSA, but it certainly stands out from the crowd: