I was browsing through Rohit Bhargava’s influential marketing blog when I came across the “Hollywood Declares Themselves” video that encouraged young people to vote in the US elections. Countless Hollywood celebrities endorsed the DeclareYourself campaign by appearing in this video. What made the video more unique and memorable was the fact that for the majority of the time, the celebrities urged the viewers to not vote. They kept saying things like “why vote?”, “why should we care about education”? I agree with Rohit that the reverse psychology grabbed people’s attentions, and allowed them to understand the real message.
Also, this ad was effective because not only did it encourage the viewers to vote, it told the viewers HOW to vote. Most ads for products already does this (eg. At the end of the TV ad, the announcer might say: product sold in various Shoppers Drugmarts), but as Rohit pointed out in his blog, many election campaigns do not focus on this, and are therefore not as effective.