TV's Norman Lear Boosts Young Voters

April 11, 2007 Brandweek 

By Constantine von Hoffman

BOSTON -- Presidential candidates are not the only ones getting their marketing efforts up and running. Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan effort to get 18-year-olds to register and vote, has kicked off its advertising campaign. This year’s effort has a long list of online sponsors, including Yahoo!, MySpace, YouTube, Google and Friendster.

"We’re very excited to get companies like MySpace on board for this," said Norman Lear, the legendary TV producer who founded Declare Yourself. Declare Yourself will be prominently featured on MySpace’s Impact Channel. It has a registration link and will help create content, video contests and special projects in this new channel aimed at people who are or want to be activists for various causes.

The multimedia effort is also being supported by Clear Channel and Comedy Central, which will provide PSAs, celebrity appearances and online efforts. Right now the group's celebrity spokespeople are America Ferrera, of ABC’s Ugly Betty, and Hayden Panettiere, who plays the cheerleader on NBC’s Heroes. However, Lear expects to sign up other young celebrities, including sports figures and fashion designers.

Lear sees this as an instance of enlightened self-interest on the part of his media partners. “Being a good corporate citizen is first and foremost the biggest reason they are doing this,” said Lear. But he knows it also gives them another way to connect with consumers. "Maybe they have sensed what the research has showed—young people respond to companies that do things like this."

Lear hopes to repeat the success Declare Yourself had in 2004 and 2006. He said the campaign signed up more than a million new voters in each of those years.