Social Media can be ridiculously fun

Do you wish you could fast-forward time to skip all of the soon-to-be released political messaging from the Presidential candidates and stop right before election day?

This post won't help you do that.

What I can do is point you in the direction of something fun, that could take your mind off of the impending (read: boring) messages, that happens to also be the start of a solid example of social media for good: voter registration.

I ran across this post today on Jason Falls' Social Media Explorer blog in my feed reader (Maker’s Mark Is Capturing Election Fever With A Presidential Prediction) that caught my eye since it brought two very different (yet sometimes intertwined) industries together: alcohol and politics.

Check out Maker's Mark News, which according to Falls is...

"...a faux news effort we’ve put together to support Maker’s Mark’s partnership with Rock The Vote."

The About Page pretty much sums it up:

"The Maker’s Mark and Rock The Vote Bus Blog is a friendly place to have some fun during the 2008 election season. To increase awareness and drive voter registration, Maker’s Mark and Rock The Vote have partnered to send the Maker’s Mark-Rock The Vote Bus to several cities around the nation prior to the November election. As an additional reminder to Maker’s Mark customers, hang tags on bottles of special, limited edition, triple-dipped Maker’s Mark bottles remind people to register to vote."

Here's the effort's first video entry:


What makes this so remarkable is that it looks really fun. They chose to work with a message that they know will resonate with positive humor for their target audience. They pieced together a campaign that brings proven elements of marketing and communications, just with a fun twist.

I hope their efforts pay off.
I hope they raise awareness for voter registration.
I hope more professional communicators learn how to have fun with their messages.

Our audiences just might appreciate the change.