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Declare Yourself 2008

Press Release

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Elizabeth Rosenberg
Declare Yourself
310/ 385-4186
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DECLARE YOURSELF LAUNCHES NEW NONPARTISAN CAMPAIGN TO REGISTER EVERY 18-YEAR-OLD BY 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Producer Norman Lear To Enlist Unprecedented Scope of Online Partners Including Yahoo! and MySpace
America Ferrera and Hayden Panettiere Sign On as Spokespeople

LOS ANGELES (April 11, 2007) – In a new nonpartisan, multimedia campaign to empower every eligible 18-year-old in America to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election, Declare Yourself is partnering with an unprecedented list of the most popular online destinations. The campaign will leverage the enormous reach of Yahoo! (Premier Online Information Partner) and MySpace (Premier Social Networking Partner), YouTube, Google, Friendster, Evite and Good Search. Major media partners Clear Channel and Comedy Central also have joined the campaign, founded by TV and film producer Norman Lear. Golden Globe winner America Ferrera, ABC's "Ugly Betty," and Hayden Panettiere from NBC's hit show, "Heroes," who turns 18 this year, will serve as spokespeople for the project.

Declare Yourself will work closely with young celebrities, sports figures and fashion designers; popular television shows; mobile content providers; retailers; video gaming; and media outlets, to drive millions of young people, particularly first-time voters, to www.DeclareYourself.com to register to vote. Declare Yourself will also be in the classroom, partnering with the Close Up Foundation to educate, engage and inspire first-time voters to register and vote.

Declare Yourself registered well over one million young people (ages 18 – 29) in the 2004 and 2006 elections. The 2008 nonprofit campaign has been created in response to research which shows that getting a young person to register and vote at age 18 is the strongest predictor of lifelong voting behavior. The campaign builds on the momentum of the record number of young voters in 2004 and an increase of more than two million young voters in the 2006 midterm election over 2002.

"The right to vote is a rite of passage as important as any and we invite other partners from the worlds of business, media, entertainment, education and the Internet to join us in this campaign," said Norman Lear, who founded Declare Yourself in 2003 as the culmination of his Declaration of Independence Road Trip.

A full list of project partners and their respective Declare Yourself initiatives, celebrity spokespeople, and further details about the campaign will be unveiled at Declare Yourself's official launch event in Los Angeles this summer. The redesigned website (www.DeclareYourself.com), a "one-stop shop" for voting tools and election information, will be launched in June 2007.

Declare Yourself will enjoy the participation and collaboration of many powerful and influential entities that have significant relevance with 18-year-olds. Among these are:

ONLINE
  • MySpace will be the Premier Social Networking Partner. MySpace's huge popularity and strong commitment to empowering its users to become involved in the political process will play a crucial role in the next election. As MySpace's registration partner on its new Impact Channel, Declare Yourself will collaborate to create content, video contests and special projects, while users will have the opportunity to register and post messages on the cobranded MySpace-Declare Yourself page (www.myspace.com/declareyourself.)
  • Yahoo! will be the Premier Online Information Partner. Expanding on the successful collaboration in 2004 and the enormous reach of Yahoo!, Declare Yourself will be Yahoo!’s registration partner, collaborating on content and special online features with a variety of Yahoo! properties, such as Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! News. In 2004, Yahoo! helped Declare Yourself register over one million people and partnered on a special event and registration drive that registered over 100,000 people in one day.
  • A wide range of additional online partners, including YouTube, Google, Friendster (www.friendster.com/dy2008) and Evite, have signed on to help promote the Declare Yourself campaign and provide links to the online registration tools.
  • The Declare Yourself "Register to Vote" icon and direct link to its registration tool will be placed on hundreds of youth-focused websites and blogs.
ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA
  • Declare Yourself will partner with Comedy Central, as it did in 2004, on voter registration, original co-branded PSAs and other broadcast and online initiatives.
  • Clear Channel will once again enlist its local radio stations and television group, on-air talent and networks to participate in PSAs, a media tour and on-air promotions.
  • Declare Yourself will be working with a number of top television shows and the film industry on storylines, message placement and the creation of PSA campaigns.
FASHION

Due to the overwhelming success of the 2004 Declare Yourself voting fashion tees designed by Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham and Richard Tyler, Declare Yourself will be enlisting today’s hottest designers to make their nonpartisan statement in 2008.

SPORTS

Declare Yourself will leverage the star power and reach of the sports arena by partnering with young athletes, major sporting events and sports media.

EDUCATION

The Close Up Foundation (www.closeup.org) in Washington, DC, partnering with Declare Yourself, will launch a First Vote educational initiative to reach high school seniors and teachers nationwide through a special online microsite, curriculum, and briefings designed to encourage students to register to vote via www.DeclareYourself.com

 

About Declare Yourself:
Declare Yourself is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to energize and empower every eligible 18-year-old in America to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election. Partnering with leaders in education, the entertainment industry, popular online destinations and media outlets, the fashion industry and retailers, Declare Yourself registered well over one million people in the 2004 and 2006 elections at www.DeclareYourself.com. Declare Yourself, founded by Norman Lear, was launched in 2003 as the culmination of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a nationwide multimedia exhibit and tour of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.

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