The Justin Bieber Get Out The Vote Campaign ?

One left wing group aimed at increasing participating by younger voters has apparently decided that a 16 year old Canadian is what’s needed to get young people to the polls:

Internet-savvy types know that teen heartthrob Justin Bieber pretty much rules the web. Just last week, rumor spread that Bieber’s fan base was so active on Twitter that the microblogging website has servers dedicated just to him.  Twitter didn’t confirm, but they didn’t deny it, either.

The takeaway? If you’re trying to get a message to go viral, your success rate will surely be higher if you can somehow tie-in the Biebs.

So that’s just what Campus Progress, the college spinoff of the Center for American Progress, decided to do to get people to vote in the midterms.

The organization is highlighting a submission to its VoteAgain2010 video contest that argues, while Bieber can’t vote in our midterms (he’s both too young and too Canadian), shouldn’t you?

“This isn’t your standard election year video of celebrities asking you to vote,” the ad says. “It’s us, asking you to vote for celebrities who can’t, celebrities like Justin Bieber. Bieber’s too young to vote, yet whomever we elect in the 2010 midterm elections will impact his future and ours. … So tell your parents, your grandparents, your Facebook friends … If they won’t do it for you, ask them to do it for Bieber.”

(…)

“We’re trying to leverage Bieber fever,” Campus Progress’s Sara Haile-Mariam told POLITICO. “Most of his fans are 12 years old – we acknowledge that.” Still, they hope that Bieber fans will “tell their parents. … The hope is to create something that goes viral and gets young people to be aware of the election.”

Here’s the video:

A few reactions to this campaign. First, it says something when people conclude that Justin Bieber is more likely to motivate people to vote than the President of The United States. Second, Justin Bieber is no Frank Sinatra. Third, my reaction after watching the video is much like Jason Pye’s:

This video makes me want to punch something:

Indeed.

FILED UNDER: 2010 Election, Entertainment, Popular Culture, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.