A snap election calls for clarity of communication.

While the political parties flurried to put together hastily assembled election campaigns, Saatchi & Saatchi’s stand out work for Just Vote embraced both a clarity of communication and a comic touch.

Commentators have already dubbed the 2024 election as the ‘boomer election’, focusing on policies that would appeal to the post-World War II baby-boom generation. The uncomfortable truth is that this focus reflects voter turnout.

Historically, younger people are less likely to vote than older people, and the gap has widened since the 1990s. Over half (54%) of 18- to 25-year-olds voted in the last general election.

As Richard Huntington, Chair and Chief Strategy Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, explains: “Only half of 18–24-year-olds now vote and that’s an emergency.”

Enter non-partisan campaign, Just Vote, with the ‘Voting is Hot AF’ campaign, which aims to encourage young people to get out and vote in the 4^th of July general election.

The campaign strategy is built on the insight that voting officially makes you hotter. According to research from YouGov, 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds find regular voters more attractive.

The socially-led campaign is built on the idea that ‘hotness’ is both subjective and abstract, just as decisions made at the polls can be. Every interpretation of ‘hotness’ is celebrated in the creative, just as every vote - and every person who gives AF - should be.

Reimagining the voting trope of the ‘X’ as a visual shorthand to symbolise attraction, the work draws on modern dating culture to explore what attraction means to different people, while also nodding to the X-ratedness of sex appeal. Echoing the language and social tropes of this culture, headlines include ‘Get polled’, ‘Giving AF is hot AF’, ‘Talk turnout to me’ and ‘18+ for a reason’. 

This campaign has a light touch, but this honest truth packs a punch. Democracy doesn’t work properly if the participation is disproportionate.

At such a volatile moment in our collective history, as we navigate yet another turning point, there is still creative work worth giving AF about.