In your face, until you vote...

Although I feel confident that the election will go my way on 11/4, I will not jinx it by re-stating what the media is incessantly giving us relative to poll standings... This is not all bad, as there are those that want to be aligned with a "winner" and will possibly vote with no more depth of thought than to safely switch to the winning team ..so as the final tally comes in, they feel like a winner too!




I will say, that I see one small risk as we head to election day. If it impacts, we will face it on election day. Obama has a 47% lead among first time voters, and a 3% lead among the rest of voters (ABC News Poll, Election 2008). We have clearly won the support of America's youth, but it has to translate to a vote. If I were directing the ad campaigns for Obama in the final week, I would create one, targeting this first time voter, to prepare them for the process of voting. I would use :60 to pump them up about the privilege to vote...remind them how exciting it is to be young adults embarking on the best years of their lives, and enthusiastically acknowledge how "sick" it is to participate in democracy. I would prepare them for long lines, hours of waiting, and discourage them from stepping out of the line and leaving the gift of freedom of speech on the curb, just because they are bored, tired and in dire need of a latte...

Kids today - well ok, young adults, are used to and in fact expect a level of instant gratification. They are independent thinkers and a generation of doers, but act mostly on their own terms...They are not majority viewers of news programs nor do they read newspapers with regularity. They watch TV, spend time on the Internet, and text each other. So an emotionally charged TV/Internet spot and a SMS campaign to reinforce patience, and an appreciation of a system larger than themselves, may be a good investment.

Obama needs these votes, and I would hate to see apathy, impatience or restlessness change the momentum at the 11th hour.