DECLARE YOURSELF GOES OLD ‘SKOOL’ AND GETS OUT THE VOTE WITH NEW ANIMATED PSAs

“TV Funhouse” Producer, Writers, Animators Team Up For New Campaign

LOS ANGELES, CA  – October 6, 2008 – Declare Yourself, the national non-partisan youth voter registration campaign, released a new series of animated public service announcements (PSAs), to encourage every eligible 18-to-29 year old to register in the final days of the 2008 presidential campaign and to vote on November 4th. The animated shorts were created and produced by Samantha Scharff, the producer of Robert Smigel’s “TV Funhouse” featured on Saturday Night Live for the past decade.

“Animated satire has a long and rich history in providing astute commentary regarding a number of important social issues,” said Marc Morgenstern, Declare Yourself Executive Director. “We hope that young voters will connect with the iconic voice and imagery of the short films. Behind all the fun animation is a very important message: voting is easy, and critical for the health of our democracy.”

The latest PSA, released today, is an animated short with a catchy song telling younger adults to vote—because at the very least, they will get a cool sticker for their efforts. Sung by a man obviously in his thirties to a girl who just turned eighteen, he sings the praises and virtues of his “I Voted” sticker, and proceeds to tell the girl additional benefits of returning to a high school to vote, including “auditing a gym class” (a code for watching cheerleaders), or breaking into lockers. By the end of the song, the girl is empowered to kick the man aside and vote. The video is a key element of Declare Yourself’s “Why Wait” campaign, which promotes the benefits of early voting in the 31 states that allow it. The short features the voicework of Tara Sands and Joseph Karnes, with vocals by musical artist The Brother Sal.

The first animation, released prior to registration deadlines in October, is a bold spoof of the classic “Schoolhouse Rock” campaign that ran on ABC between 1973 and 1986. The new, two-minute “Skoolhouse Rock” animation features a talking Voting Machine Lever who dictates the “steps” needed to take to register and vote, especially hilarious clichés needed to finally be considered eighteen. Such milestones include getting a lower-back tattoo, inappropriate piercings, a deadbeat boyfriend, drug experimentation and a pregnancy scare. The Lever tells the girl she should register online through Declare Yourself—obviously the preferred choice for the young adult. In a twist, the girl reveals that her district uses computerized voting machines, leaving the Lever to his own devices. This short also featured the voice of Tara Sands, and the vocals of singer Tim Jones.

The shorts were animated by the company 8 Hats High, and written by Scott Jacobson, a four-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, and Rich Blomquist, a writer for The Daily Show with John Stewart. Emmy-nominated composer Jared Faber produced the musical score for the animations. Audio engineer Paul Furedi provided the audio post-production work.

ABOUT DECLARE YOURSELF
Declare Yourself is a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign aiming to empower every eligible American, 18-to-29 years old, to register to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Through the power of strategic media partnerships, celebrity spokespeople, retail outreach, sports and, most importantly, digital technology and social media, Declare Yourself has created a campaign that embraces the landscape of youth peer and popular culture with one key message: register and vote. Since 2004, Declare Yourself has registered more than two million young voters. It is currently registering tens of thousands of new voters each week.

In 2003, Declare Yourself launched its initiative with The Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a nationwide multimedia exhibit and tour of Norman Lear’s original copy of the Declaration. The document remains on tour, and appeared in both the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September.

Led by Norman Lear, Declare Yourself has an advisory board of leaders from the political and media worlds including many influential figures with their fingers on the pulse of the 18-29 demographic, including NBC Entertainment/ NBC Universal Television Studio co-chairmen Ben Silverman, trend specialist Atoosa Rubenstein, online video expert James Kotecki, producer J.J. Abrams and television personality Tyra Banks. The Declare Yourself Advisory Board has the ability to spread the message of the organization to America’s youth. Corporate partners with Declare Yourself include Cricket, Yahoo!, MySpace, Google, AOL, Clear Channel, Comedy Central and American Eagle Outfitters. For more information, please visit www.declareyourself.com.

ABOUT SAMANTHA SCHARFF
Samantha Scharff has been the producer of Robert Smigel's “TV Funhouse” on Saturday Night Live for the last decade. Scharff also produced the SNL 90 minute special "The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse," as well as the DVD of the same name. Scharff produced all the segments on Comedy Central's "TV Funhouse” show which aired in 2001, and Robert Smigel's Fox pilot Animals which recently finished. In addition to her work with Robert Smigel’s team, Scharff produced the “Tek Jansen” animations for The Colbert Report in 2007. Most recently, Samantha is the creator and producer of an upcoming pilot for 20th Century Fox Studios.

ABOUT 8 HATS HIGH
8 Hats High is a full service animation and production house located in Middletown, NY (65 miles north of NYC). We specialize in traditional animation as well as visual effects and motion capture. 8 Hats High has worked on various projects from TV commercials to animated cartoon series. 8 Hats High has worked alongside J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc., animating such shows as Comedy Central's "Tek Jansen" for The Colbert Report and "The Big Adventures of L'il Shawn and Gus" for USA Network's hit TV show, Psych. Some of the company’s artists have credits such as Disney's Lizzie Mcguire the Movie, Saturday Night Live's "TV Funhouse" and Cartoon Network's Stroker and Hoop.

ABOUT THE WRITERS
Scott Jacobson is a four-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer whose credits include the Academy Awards, SNL's "TV Funhouse," and programs on Comedy Central and Adult Swim. He lives in Brooklyn.

Rich Blomquist is a writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also contributed to Robert Smigel's “TV Funhouse” cartoons on Saturday Night Live and Adult Swim's Squidbillies. He loves to vote.

ABOUT JARED FABER
Emmy nominated composer Jared Faber has composed music for such TV shows as Nickelodeon's As Told by Ginger, ABC’s Emily's Reasons Why Not, MTV's Friday the Animated Series, Bravo's Being Bobby Brown and others. Additionally he has topped the CMJ chart's with his independent project "Urban Legend". His music has also been featured in Nip/Tuck, Dexter, Cane, and in the film The Long Shots staring Ice Cube.

ABOUT TARA SANDS
Tara Sands is an accomplished voice actress, with credits including Fridays on the Cartoon Network, hundreds of television and radio commercials and cartoons, as well as the audiobook series of Sammy Keyes, Olivia Kidney, and Allie Finkle. Additional information can be found at www.tarasands.com.

ABOUT TIM JONES
Additional information regarding Tim Jones is available at www.timjonesmusic.com and www.myspace.com/timjonesmusic. Jones is managed by Pete Angelus for Angelus Entertainment.

ABOUT JOSEPH KARNES
Additional information about Joseph Karnes is available at www.myspace.com/topangajoe

ABOUT THE BROTHER SAL
Additional information about The Brother Sal is available at www.myspace.com/thebrothersal

ABOUT PAUL FUREDI
Paul Furedi is an audio engineer who works at PostWorks in NYC. He has also mixed sound for many of the TV Funhouse episodes on SNL and Comedy Central.

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