With less than a week before West Hollywood residents head to the polls to vote in the city’s special Council election, the City of West Hollywood has partnered with YouTube sensation Todrick Hall to get out the vote.
Hall has teamed up with dozens of local dancers to produce “Pretty Boys,” a catchy song and music video, to motivate people to go to the polls and cast a vote. The tune is a parody of the hit song “Pretty Girls” by Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea, which was released earlier this month and which was performed live by Spears and Azalea at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards
At the special June 2 election West Hollywood residents will cast votes for one member of the City Council. The goal of the “Pretty Boys” video is to capture the imaginations of young people in West Hollywood who, statistically, are less likely to go to the polls than older voters. The video features a sexy cast of characters with fierce dancers, shirtless models, and local personalities who perform a slick dance routine in West Hollywood’s iconic Rainbow Crosswalks, as well as other recognizable spots in the city.
The “Pretty Boys” video follows the success of Hall’s “Alice in WeHoLand” video, which the city produced to kick-off its crosswalk safety campaign last October. To date, “Alice in WeHoLand” has received more than 875,000 views on YouTube. Hall is a singer, actor, director, choreographer and dancer who rose to the semi-finals of “American Idol” in its ninth season. His YouTube channel features his music-inspired projects. He has a loyal following of devoted fans with more than 1.4-million subscribers.
In April, the city began rolling out traditional get-out-the-vote election materials including streetlamp pole banners, postcards, print advertising and digital and social media advertising. The materials feature musically inspired creative designs that echo rock-and-roll posters from West Hollywood’s famed Sunset Strip. Call-to-action messages urging residents to vote,were inspired by popular song lyrics from Madonna, The Doors, and Janis Joplin. Red, white, and blue versions of the designs say “Express Yourself” or “You Hold The Key,” while more brightly hued versions humorously suggest “Break On Through” or “C’mon Baby.” The theme of the campaign, reflected in a fifth design, is that “Your Voice Matters” when it comes to registering, voting and being a part of the democratic process of choosing local elected representatives.
The City of West Hollywood has a population of 34,399 and currently has more than 25,000 residents who are registered to vote. All materials for the get-out-the-vote effort feature a website URL to the City’s elections page, www.weho.org/elections, which provides detailed election information, as well as a polling place locator and voter resources widget, which allows visitors to type-in a registered voter address in order to find a polling location.
Ha! The young people this video would appeal to are usually not even residents of West Hollywood. Or if they are, often transient and not registered in the city.
Elections are won here by appealing to the long time residents – rent controlled, seniors, home owners.
When our City Council mostly only talks of serving an imagined Weho resident of an imagined future (all these future ‘new friends’ that are straining at our borders to get in); when the politics of our city is hyper-focused on the imagined Weho resident/boogyman of the imagined future – then why should current, younger residents vote now?
We’re all supposed to be living and making decisions for a future Weho resident, so why should we expect current residents to care about the now?
PS- Who benefits from disenfranchising the current residents from their city and government? The long-serving status-quo.
Well done!
Anything that raises the voting pulse of this city
Is there a russian version???
The apathy of registered WeHo voters is appalling. If this video can encourage younger people to vote, I’m all for it !
Oh gawd, how much did we pay for this nonsense??? Another waste of money after the robo auto garage toy behind city hall.
Oh Alison, Alison, Alison…why so bitter? This video is cute & with the younger generation, it’s ALL about social media to bring them out to get involved. So, chill. And vote….
Love it!!
Oh please! Do you really think the residents of the East Side (the elderly, the Russians, the straights, etc.) are going to see this and be motivated? This is to get the gay vote out and nothing more. I am embarrassed by these videos representing our city. WE ARE MORE THAN OUR LGBT CITIZENS and it is about time City Hall recognizes this. There are more dignified ways to get out the vote.