By Ann Hancock, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder
Unexpectedly this summer, Charlie Pendergast, my friend and a longtime supporter, called to say that he wanted to fund Jason Windsor to create a video to get people throughout the country to vote. Jason created the END OF ZE WORLD video, one of the first to go viral. He also created our funny, popular video showing people’s confusion about the name of our organization.
Because The Climate Center recognizes that getting people to vote is critical for climate issues as well as many others, we were very pleased to be the channel through which Charlie funded Jason. Meaningful climate action hinges upon a healthy democracy and participation in the democratic process by younger generations, who will be most affected by climate change.
Charlie funded Jason to use the funds however as an artist he thought best. So Jason, after research and reflection, created an animated video featuring Zoom recordings of regular Americans explaining why their vote really does matter. The video was intended to go viral and create a sense of urgency for viewers to vote this year, primarily young voters.
Jason brought Christopher Dilts onto the team. He’s a top social media marketing expert who used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for this project to show the video and its variations to people across the country.
The campaign exceeded expectations, reaching 3 million people by election day. Chris said that the video played a pivotal role in getting out the vote in the 2020 election.
Inspired by the results of the project, the team is extending the campaign immediately to Georgia’s Senate race run-off in January 2021 that will determine the degree of federal climate action that will be possible over the coming years.
“This #myvotecounts project was a cool opportunity to do what I’m passionate about, communicating important messages in a way that’s fun and makes people laugh,” said Windsor. “Although Covid made us use Zoom, the authentic voices of youth and citizens of all walks of life got to be amplified. It was an amazing collaboration.”
Christopher Dilts, Chief Strategy Officer for Mari Smith, had this to say about the video:
“The impact of this video proves that a small group really can make an outsized difference. Because many of the critical votes in November were won by narrow margins, this video campaign could well have tipped the scale for the election outcome. As a social media professional, I was surprised by the very high level of engagement of the people we reached. This affirmed for me that the positive message that the videos conveyed reflects the common human values shared broadly across this country. Going forward, we know that the Senate races in Georgia will be close, and that the outcome will be a game-changer for decades to come. We’ll immediately leverage the limited funds we have to extend this voting video campaign in Georgia for all they’re worth.”
Charlie Pendergast on The RiskPress Foundation and the project:
“The RiskPress Foundation’s goal is to seek out and support the work of artists of all kinds. Underlying that mission is a philosophy or strategy which assumes that humanity has its best chance of survival when children, parents, teachers, and artists are given everything they need to be healthy, to thrive, and are encouraged to do their work. It was a pleasure to play with Jason Windsor because he is all of those four categories, and he does brilliant work. We are also grateful that The Climate Center graciously partnered with us throughout the project.”
Click here for a full list of credits for the campaign.
Click here to read more about this in the Press Democrat.
For more information, please contact me ann [at] theclimatecenter dot org.
