Rock the vote? Not bloody likely….
So, prompted somewhat by seeing too much of those atrocious TV ads featuring celebrities that I don’t recognise and the fact that I know waaayyy to many people involved in the whole ‘Rock the Vote’ thing I decided to look at the site run by these people. I appreciate what many of the people involved are trying to do but to be honest are they going to change anything? Doubtful I’d say…
Warning: Even by my standards this is going to be a rambly and disjointed post. Also its very negative.
The idea behind RockTheVote.ie is that come election day - which is just over a week away now, young people will go out and vote because its a good idea, or something. You see, while there was lots of talk about how ‘the children are the future’ and ‘young people’s voices need to be heard’ there is no really good reason this site can give as to why you should vote.
There are two major points at which this site falls down before it even starts. Firstly - its message seems to be that ‘all young people are retarded’; even the use of the words ‘young people’ is insulting. The design of the site and those TV ads seem to be more aimed towards selling sweets to small fat 8 year-olds than convincing new voters on the registrar and those who may not have put themselves onto it yet to vote. Ads that treat you like your a vapid moron are really going to work lads. Secondly - the money spent and the politicians taking the photo-ops that have been offered can’t hide one thing; Thursday voting. The simple fact is as the RockTheVote team themselves acknowledge, if its not weekend voting you lose an awful lot of the youth vote. Bertie simply ignores it in his blog (which to be honest I doubt he even wrote) while the opposition leaders use it as a handily-provided stick to say how bad Bertie is. Apparently, RockTheVote can’t campaign for Saturday voting (something to do with the way they are set up) and with that being the case - what’s the point of them being there? You might as well pray for cancer patients as try to convince young people to vote, it’ll have the same effect in the real world.
The same can be said for the blogs on offer. The leaders blogs are so vapid and lack any useful info they seem to be just ‘copy and pasted’ from pre-prepared statements from the parties. While there are some bits and pieces that are interesting you have to go looking for them and the sheer paucity of posts from the parties shows how they are not really that interested in the ‘young people’.
The ‘young people’s blogs’ are somewhat more interesting, in that they at least have some original thought and style. But again, there’s not a whole lot posted there and some of the posts are just ‘Sure, I don’t know anything about politics, why would I vote?’ with the always inspiring reply to that being ‘becuase its your right… or something’. They do hit it on the head though when they acknowledge that for many things like taxes and stamp duty and whether Bertie did do anything wrong don’t interest the majority of young voters. The lack of focus on issues that do effect young people is something that has (again) made the RockTheVote campaign rather pointless.
The whole thing also lacks any useful method of giving people information. It simply encourages you to vote but does not provide you with any real information (or even a method of finding information) with regards to the parties. In this case, whats the point? Is the idea that you go to the station and ask the person at the polling booth which person you should vote for? Compare it to the recent French elections where the youth vote knew why they preferred particular candidates - there was at least some vision, choice and most importantly difference on offer. RockTheVote offers none of these things, not the appearance of it or the means of finding out if there is diference.
There are things that do effect and would interest younger voters. These are things like poor facilities for socialising other than the pub, poor cancer care (not exclusively a ‘youth issue’ but ‘our’ generation are going to know a lot of people that will suffer it if the numbers keep growing - to the best of my memory, I’m on person number 10), drugs and suicide/depression are all issues that would mobilise young voters but the politicians have no interest in tapping into these groups.
Well, that’s not exclusively true. My own personal bet is that come election day the vast majority of those under 25 who vote will vote Sinn Fein and that’s because they do target and mobilise more youth than any other party that I have seen. Personally I don’t like that possibility but in the meantime, most young people won’t vote and if this is their introduction to voting I don’t know why they’d bother….
It does seem somewhat lacklustre. It’s almost as if they’re under an obligation to make an attempt at it but don’t actually care what the outcome is. What I’d like to see isn’t links to manifestos though, I’d prefer three bullet points per party that shows how they’re ‘better’ then the rest. That’s what I ask all the politicians that come round the door. After stammering for abit Clune’s husband even said ‘well at the end of the day it’s really your choice’. Not the best sales tactic ever.
My point exactly… I mean, even worse, I was talking to my housemate earlier - they’ve been running some of the ‘RockTheVote’ adverts before the Simpsons on Network2 and he hadn’t even noticed. After I told him about the site he went onto it and acknowledged that it was fairly crap… It’s just a waste of time really….
[...] where the Greens got those lovelies from!) More about children - well the Rock the Vote Kids - and another analysis of the campaign from John [...]
Wow… election spam…?
The ‘Rock the Vote’ campaign is idiotic and patronising. I’d like to know who’s behind it all, in terms of funding. Is the government wasting taxpayers’ money on this rubbish? Or is some opposition party marking tool?
*is it some…
Nope. Taxpayers money all the way…. EDIT: at least as far as I’m aware… Just for safety’s sake I guess…
That’s suprising, given that the few RtV blogs I’ve looked at seem to have an anti-present government agenda.
Also, * “…party marketing tool?”
If anything, the whole campaign makes me feel less inclined to vote, given that any increase in ‘young voter’ turnout will be cited as evidence of the campaign’s success.
Nope. Taxpayers money all the way….
Pardon me? Is that for real?
As far as I’m aware.. the general funds for the videos and most of the money for the actual campaign have been part financed by the government (and most of the links you see at the bottom of RockTheVote.ie are Irish Govt. related, even if by govt. you read taxpayers) which means that a fair whack of the cash is coming from government coffers. It would also explain why they weren’t able to campaign on the ‘no Thursday voting’. And Cian - the contributors are ‘whoever they could find’ simply because the ‘youth movements’ in this country in terms of those involved in the ‘Ogra’ groups or USI or USS tends to be fairly small. Thats no offense to those people (and I know at least 3of them personally). I could be wrong as to the extent of the Governments funding but everything I’ve heard so far says there is a fair amount of our taxes going to ‘Rock the Vote’
Here’s the links to the people who are thanked so … (thanks to Gavin at Thestory.ie for this)
http://rockthevote.ie/thanks.html
http://rockthevote.ie/site/index.php?option=com_easyfaq&task=cat&catid=13&Itemid=30#faq4
Looks like no government funding then, which is just as well.
It is run by cretins though.
But I would wonder how much they’re getting (either in kind or resources) from RTE in general… I mean,that must have some money from it surely?
You guys are just hilarious - I’m guessing you are all too young to vote or just unaware of electoral and broadcast legislation in this country. Rock the Vote like so many other local and community groups established to encourage people to excercise their basic right to vote falls under the auspices of SIPO (the standards in public office commission) which is responsible for enforcing Government legislation and BCI.
Under the electoral acts Rock the Vote cannot act in anyway whatsoever that can be construed as being pro or anti government. If they start raising the issue of cancer research for example or the day of polling then they will get slammed by SIPO and forced to wind down as they would then be classified as a third party formed for political purposes. As for their ads, once again under BCI and RTE’s own policies, they must follow the same guidelines. The political parties don’t have to do this, because they are political parties - they have an agenda - Rock the Vote cannot have an agenda.
As for information on candidates check out http://www.mycandidate.ie - it’s a good start, and will only get better.
The main guy behind has very progressive political beliefs, but his hands are completely tied. If he puts one foot wrong he’ll get smacked in the face by SIPO, who sit him down regularly.
With almost no money these guys have made such an impact - like or not, for the first time the media right across this country are talking about the youth vote - they are talking to young people, and young people are talking - you guys are talking - that’s an achievement - especially considering that they have spent less than the average candidate will spend on trying to get elected.
It’s money well spent.
But seriousloy guys get a grip - there’s strict legislation in this country - they have to follow it - end of story. Get worked up, but at least get worked up on the actual areas of the campaign which can be improved - of which, if you listen to any of the radio or TV interviews with the guys, there are lots. They have been massively restricted in what they can do due to funding.
Good luck
Fair enuff. My general post and the actual comments have been on two different topics though. I knew that they couldn’t be ‘partisan’ but the discussion on the comments has been about their funding mostly.
Btw, for that I do apologise for stating that they got ‘govt monies’ - misinformation! All forgiven yeah?
Mary - yeah there is things like http://www.mycandidate.ie but to be honest, most of that tells you nothing about the candidates involved.
Also, while the Rockthevote.ie campaign has gotten some people talking it still doesn’t excuse the fact that their ads are terrible and that they haven’t really talked about anything other than.. ‘you should vote like’. I’m a first time voter this election and if anything Rockthevote.ie hasn’t helped me in anything, even worse, the stupidity of their ads nearly makes me not want to vote.
And on a final note - most of the first time voters I’ve talked to don’t even know what ‘Rockthevote’ is… It seems to only be raising awareness amongst those who already know… Maybe the situation is different in Dublin but…
Whatever the motivation is behind it, Mary, doesn’t stop it from being hackneyed, clichéd, cringeworthy shite.
Twenty - that’s just your opinion - and in my opinion I don’t think you are in anyway representative of the audience we are trying to reach. You are quite a negative person. The vids were shown to an audience of 80 non-voters before they were re-edited. The overall response was positive - sure there were some criticisms, but nothing like your response. What are you more likely to buy - Heat Magazine or the Phoenix - what are you more likely to watch Celebrity Big Brother or The Leaders Debate?
Ok, on that, Mary - I am more likely to buy the Phoenix and watch the leaders debate and I am studying politics, but I’m 20, I’m voting for the first time and my brother who’s also voting for the first time would not be into any of the things you mentioned (either big brother, the phoenix or heat magazine - he may have watched chunks of the leaders debate but ….) and he would find the RockTheVote ads insulting. Some cop-on and treating people who are 18 years old (minimum, obviously) like their not idiots would help. And even aiming the campaign around things like particular issues without actually endorsing a position would also be more useful for getting young people interested (your vote will help influence what the different parties do regarding suicide for example - here’s what the different parties plan to do…), that would be more useful than some c-list ‘celeb’ doing devil horns…
god Mary. Did you grow up living under a pompous tree?
What are you more likely to buy - Heat Magazine or the Phoenix - what are you more likely to watch Celebrity Big Brother or The Leaders Debate?
Haha, fuck me. If the people you’re trying to reach are readers of Heat who enjoy Celebrity Big Brother then you’re a sad lot.
Did you think about a series of crayon drawings, perhaps? With really big writing and easy to spell words.
Twenty - there are three basic categories of young non-voters in this country - and the reality is even if the largest portion of them are “not cool” and read Heat you still need to go after them. The fact of the matter is: celebrity sells. Radio stations won’t carry boring pieces about the big issues again and again, they want a bit of spice, otherwise listners will tune out. The same goes for most of the papers.
RTV involved Katy French, Louis Walsh etc to provoke a reaction. They knew full well that people would write about it - but that’s what they wanted - they wanted people to talk - they could talk about the issue in a good or bad way - either way it didn’t matter.
The main guy Paddy Cosgrave thinks it’s great that some bloggers are giving out about the campaign - he gets his own mates for christ sake to give out stink about it online.
Ahh, the old ‘any publicity is good publicity’ approach.
It might just be that something like this requires a bit more credibility.