Interspersed during the commercial breaks while GREEK airs each week, alongside standard advertisements and promos for other ABC Family shows, there are spots featuring the different characters urging young people to go out and vote in the upcoming elections. GREEK stars’ and ABC Family have a clear campaign to encourage voting. The channel partnered with a non-partisan organization called Declare Yourself, creating online and onscreen promos, as well as sending its young stars to college campuses.
The actors wear black or white T-shirts that say VOTE on them, to reinforce the verbal message to young people to get out there and cast their votes in the upcoming election. There are a couple of different messages/ideas that come across. I know earlier in the season they had one that I admit I cannot remember enough to write about, and now there are two I have seen in recent weeks, which I will expand on. The most recent clip had Ashleigh and Rebecca doing the most talking, and previous ones had Casey and Frannie. The first one I want to discuss is the one featuring “shut up” as its catch phrase. The gist of it is that young people should get out there and vote, that if they do not vote, it would be like telling themselves to “shut up.” Shut up is a commonly used phrase amongst today’s teens, for emphasis, to show surprise, and has been appropriated by that age group to mean something different than one generally thinks. Therefore, by using those words to signify that shutting up is not always good, and as Rebecca Logan says: I have more self respect than that” the GREEK ad mixes things up. This spot reminded me of the controversial ones featuring Jessica Alba, gagged. In a similar vein here, the target demographic is being urged to find and use their voices, and not be silent.
The second go vote message that the show’s stars sell is with regard to today’s youth being a very vocal and active participating generation, who blog, text, vote, and comment on just about everything. In the age of Project Runway/Survivor/Dancing with the Stars/American Idol and their ilk, GREEK’s actors encourage taking that participation to the next level, and using one’s power and vocality to vote for who will lead this country. I did some research online and found a number of articles and forums on this campaign. Here is an article that gives a good overview, for those interested: http://www.news10.net/life/entertainment/story.aspx?storyid=47251
