Bad Messages

I just got this in the mail from Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan youth voter registration outfit:

We know what some of you might be thinking...

Youth voting campaigns seem like a dime a dozen. Start with an election cycle. Add equal parts celebrity, earnestness and cool T-shirts. Just add water ... and stir it up.

Not this time. Not this year.

The growing list of stars, athletes and artists we've brought together is unprecedented in the history of our country. The best part? Each one of them wants to do something special, something major, something unforgettable to get every 18-year-old to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election.

We can't wait to see what they come up with. Can you?

See which celebrities and influencers are powered up to get you to register and vote.

Check out www.DeclareYourself.com.

So let me get this straight:

• Youth campaigns are a dime a dozen? Way to denigrate the efforts of thousands of other people in your field and all of their hard work. This is not a zero-sum competition to see who can register the most voters. Everyone should be working together.
• Other youth campaigns suck because they use celebrities and witty slogans, but our campaign is super cool because we have the most celebrities? Awesome message. You should vote because we have more famous people telling you to do shit than the other guy.
  
  I've never been a believer in the idea that young people vote because celebrities tell them too. They vote because celebrities create a change within a cultural community. They open a space whereby participation becomes acceptable where once it wasn't. It's a subtle but important difference. It's the line between condescension and respect. It's also the difference between a broadcast strategy that talks at people, and a more peer-to-peer strategy that recognizes the celebrity as a catalyst for a much longer process that culminates in politicization and participation. Declare Yourself's message here is on the wrong side of that line.
• And what exactly is the message here? Oh yeah - it's "I'm writing to tell you that eventually celebrities are going to tell you to vote. And the way they do it will blow your mind." That is a useless message. I can't do anything with that. You just cluttered my inbox and didn't even ask me to register to vote or tell my friends to register, ostensibly the purpose of your organization.

I'm a big fan of the PSAs that Declare Yourself put together a few weeks ago. They were a step in the right direction in terms of tone and content. This email was a step backwards in the wrong direction.

Sidenote: Apparently Ivanka Trump is in the running to be one of the moderators for the MySpace debates. Folks at Declare Yourself, you are partners with MySpace. If this is true, please do everything in your power to prevent this.