The Concept Farm’s Fresh Ideas 365

Will you be voting in the upcoming presidential election?

If you haven’t made plans yet, you’ve probably been contacted by groups such as Stop and Vote, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to trying to get people to vote by any means possible.

Stop and Vote focuses on young adults and their voice in politics today. According to their Web site, “We are a voice of a demographic that needs to speak up.”

“We are real people with different backgrounds and experiences …Our generation is facing real situations, and politicians don’t see the world from our perspective. We want stopandvote.org to be used as a tool to make each other aware of our collective potential. We want to be counted.”

In addition to supplying links to appropriate voter registration forms and information on voter’s rights for each state on the Web site, Stop and Vote provides e-cards that can be sent out to encourage voting, and a “tag your neighborhood” link where stickers and logos can be ordered.

A customized clock is presented based on the viewer’s state of registration in and time zone to count down the minutes the user has left to register to vote.
Stop and Vote began with a group of college interns dedicated to giving our generation a more powerful political voice by encouraging voter registration. The interns came from various campuses and worked together on a project at the Concept Farm, a New York Communications firm.

Ray Mendez, a partner at the agency, describes himself as dedicated to creating an assignment that would make a difference.

Mendez challenged the company’s summer interns to create a campaign to drive people to action. “Eighteen- to 29-year-olds have so much at stake. But they don’t realize that they have the power to shape this country’s future with their votes. So that became their [the interns’]assignment: create a campaign to drive their generation to the polls,” he said.

The interns designed Stop and Vote and focused their group on the idea of “overcoming their peers’ biggest excuse for not voting, “one person’s vote won’t make a difference.”

The campaign is successfully gaining momentum, and is well known for its customizable and sometimes controversial messages encouraging voter registration.

Stop and Vote’s Web site launched on Sept. 11, allowing visitors to create their own messages (no matter how controversial) and send them to friends by uploading images and adding their own political thoughts.

The idea behind these personalized messages is that they can highlight any issue important to the creator.

“If religion is important to you in this campaign, vote; If women’s rights are important to you, vote; if you’re for or against McCain, vote; if you’re for or against Obama, vote … The permeations are endless,” the Stop and Vote team said.

“I’m registered to vote and I think Stop and Vote carries a worthwhile message … Our generation is too apathetic!” junior Ashley Marciniak said.

So far, the Stop and Vote Web site has had over 1,300 visitors and over 200 voting messages have been created.

The Stop and Vote Facebook group has doubled in size to over 600 members in recent days.

Over 300 people have accessed the voter registration page from the link, successfully moving the organization closer to their goal of motivating young Americans to action.

Posted by The Rooster

A group of 10 college interns from around the nation founded a viral voter registration campaign, Stop and Vote, with the intention of getting their generation to the ballot boxes this November.

The Concept Farm, a New York communications company, spearheaded this movement with hopes that its interns would become proactive and reach countless numbers of disaffected youth, according to a company statement.

Ray Mendez and Griffin Stenger, co-owners of The Concept Farm, worked closely with them to create and shape a project they could be passionate about while gaining valuable work experience that went beyond what was expected.

“I’m tired of hearing people whine and complain about the state of the country,” Mendez said “I needed to do something – not to express my anger, but to entertain people and get them to act. Eighteen- to 29-year-olds have so much at stake. But they don’t realize they have the power to shape this country’s future with their votes.”

What then resulted was the assignment to create a campaign to drive their generation to the polls.

The group identified the largest road block in the way of its generation’s participation in the political process as the “one person’s vote won’t make a difference” mentality, Mendez said.

To combat this line of thinking, the group – through their Web site, stopandvote.org – has offered Internet savvy users the ability to craft their own message, regardless of the controversial nature.

“If our entire generation were to truly leverage our power in the political process, we believe our elected officials would have no choice but to hear and address our concerns, regardless of which candidate wins,” said Yasin Abbak, co-founder of Stop and Vote and student at Drew University.

Abbak also commented about the comparisons between this movement and previous movements like Rock the Vote and Vote or Die.

“The campaign is by people our age, for people our age,” Abbak said. “There are no celebrities or politicians telling us what to do; we are all equal; this is our generation. If this campaign can reach five people, it is a success.”

Participants are encouraged to upload their own images and invent a catchy slogan or place the Stop and Vote logo on the image before sending the potentially viral message through their address book.

Abbak stressed the importance of this initiative and said the ultimate success of this generation is dependent on the response by college-age students.

“We’ve been underrepresented because we haven’t given politicians an incentive to account for us and represent our demographic,” Abbak said.

But not all students agree.

“The media is so accessable now anyone can step up and make a difference,” said Dane Conway a senior in communications.

Posted by The Rooster

Posted by The Rooster