MTV is getting political. The network, which has long been an advocate of encouraging young voters, is now accepting political advertisements for the first time.
Barack Obama, who has a fund-raising advantage over John McCain, is expected to advertise soon on MTV, The New York Times reports.
Obama, 47, is likely to be the more appealing candidate for MTV’s audience. For starters, he’s 24 years younger than McCain. He’s had had the long-time support of cutting-edge celebs such as Scarlett Johansson, will.i.am and 50 Cent.
Obama has played Kanye West’s music at campaign events and referenced Jay-Z when he “brushed that dirt off his shoulder,” in response to Hillary Clinton’s criticisms. In a recent article in Rolling Stone, he reveals what’s on his iPod: Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. He even fist-bumped his wife after taking the Democratic nomination.
Getting its young audience involved in elections has been a longtime project of MTV, but this is the first time the network will air advertisements in support of specific candidates.
In 1990, MTV launched its “Rock the Vote” ad campaign, which encouraged viewers to cast ballots, regardless of who they were voting for. Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Christina Aguilera and Tom Cruise are some of the stars involved with MTV’s Rock the Vote initiative.
With its website, Think MTV (backed by founding partners the Goldhirsh Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Case Foundation, among others) the network has put out a concerted effort toward educating MTV’s audience. The site provides a vehicle for an interactive discussion on politics, and encourages users to get involved with the issues that matter to them.
Part of the Think MTV website is the “Choose or Lose” program, on which MTV hosted political candidates to discuss issues with young voters. In March, Clinton and Obama met with young Iraq veterans in a discussion that was aired on MTV.
MTV’s affiliated networks BET, Comedy Central, VH1 and Spike TV already allow political ads.
MTV executive Jeannie Kedas spoke to AdAge about the change, saying, “Given where we are in the election cycle, and how the youth vote has increasingly engaged and played a crucial role in past presidential elections, we re-evaluated the MTV policy and decided that campaign-approved ads would be a good fit for our audience, and would complement our ‘Choose or Lose’ campaign efforts.”
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