by Piper Werle
Any U.S. voter spending time on the internet has noticed a huge influx in ‘get out the vote’ (GOTV) videos. My full-time job is curating social media content, and GOTV material has made up the majority of posts for the past two months. The sheer amount of people working to encourage and educate voters leading up to what may be the most important election of our lifetimes has made me a little numb, but these six videos took unique and effective approaches in a saturated market.
My fascination with the GOTV video is two-fold:
As evidenced by the 100 million people who didn’t vote in 2016, motivating people to vote is hard to do. This isn’t surprising given the barriers to voting that many may face in a process that should be simple and accessible to all, as well as the fatigue and disillusionment a lot of folks feel towards the current political system. A great GOTV must find ways to acknowledge this and still show people why casting their ballot is worthwhile. Ideally, it will make a cynical voter excited to participate in a less-than-perfect Democratic process in order to make it better in the future.
As a video producer, it’s educational to learn from content creators who got it right!
6. Diane Guerrero’s steamy voting PSA*
This is worth a watch for the double entendres ALONE. “Because it’s healthy to have fantasies! To imagine a world beyond the binary of two choices!” This video’s spokeswoman, clever script, and campy concept do not pretend that everything is fine here in the U.S.A., yet I still left feeling ready to travel to my ballot dropbox, and send postcards to voters in swing states.
Audience: progressive Latinx voters, immigrants, and their allies.
Call to Action: GOTV for the presidential race.
5. “Preaching to the Choir” with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody*
The presidential election gets all of the attention, but we need to talk about the pivotal Senate races on the ballot. That’s not even the real reason I’m including this video though. The true motivator is the puns. Just watch the first six seconds and you’ll see 👀 what I mean 😠. Hey, if a hook works, it works.
Audience: children, parents (and apparently me, a weary millennial).
Call to Action: GOTV for various Senate races.
4. “What Trump Fears More Than Coronavirus”*
This video takes a meta “Scream” approach to its storytelling. No, Ghost Face does not make an appearance, but the first section of the video is dedicated to showing exactly what is wrong with past GOTV videos, showing some welcome self-awareness. The narrator, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an environmental activist, and hip-hop artist, then uses examples from the Civil Rights movement and other points in history to show who the real heroes are behind iconic laws that passed. (Hint: Lyndon B. Johnson needed a ton of pressure to get to the point of passing civil rights legislation.) This video takes a huge risk by being twelve and a half minutes long but pulls off a nuanced, unique, and compelling argument for their candidate endorsement.
Audience: Sunrise Movement supporters, mainly youth activists and adults supportive of environmental activism.
Call to Action: GOTV for the presidential race.
3. Get Your Booty To The Poll (NSFW)
The hook: civically engaged exotic dancers. The payoff: FACTS about why it’s so important to vote down the ballot for more local officials that have a huge influence in communities.
Using sex appeal to get out the vote is not a new tactic, but what sets this video above and beyond its predecessors like this one with Madonna, and this one by— okay never mind actually, this one by Grindr is pretty good. But ‘Get Your Booty to the Poll’ is GREAT for two reasons.
First, this whole video is a grassroots effort by Black Georgians. A Black woman named Angela Barnes directed it and raised the funds via GoFundMe with a producer, Paul Fox. On their fundraising page they explain that any funds not going toward the campaign will be donated to “the Black Male Voter Project, Fair Fight, and other non-profits committed to educating voters and fighting voter suppression in our communities.” It’s clear the dancers care greatly about the cause as well, and the campaign has an excellent website. Also, the fact that this lacked the resources of most famous GOTV videos, doesn’t have a single celebrity and still managed to go viral is a testament to its brilliance.
Secondly, the video hones in on a topic very few other voting videos touch: voting down-ballot. The only other one I’ve seen that does this is this video by Yellopain, but he doesn’t go as hyper local. For example, one of the lines in Get Your Booty to the Poll is, “Want trades and coding taught in our schools? Then vote for the school boards that will prepare us for the job market.” I love the specificity that goes above and beyond throwing “VOTE” in my face over and over again. Now watch the video and, hey. Get your booty to the poll.
Audience: Black voters, particularly Black male voters.
Call to Action: Research and vote for candidates down-ballot.
2. This Is The Time (music video)*
Shout out to Youth Vs. Apocalypse for making a GOTV music video that acknowledges this significant moment in history for environmental and racial justice. Using dance, rap, song, and an array of young and talented performers, their tone is engaging and demanding. “We don’t just want to be inspirational, we want you to meet our demands.”
Audience: Youth, adults, Spanish speakers, supporters of Black Lives Matter.
Call to action: Encourage youth to vote and/or to encourage the adults in their lives to vote.
1. SPOILER for a feature-length film that just came out:
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Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (aka Borat 2)*
The payoff of this wildly over-the-top satirical film is that it’s a get out the vote effort.
Audience: Anyone willing to listen.
Call to action: GOTV for the presidential race.
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*Partisan content.