Will Smith, Harrison Ford, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Timberlake, Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, Zac Braff, Shia LaBeouf, Neil Patrick Harris, Tobey Maguire, Orlando Bloom, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segel are among the celebrities in this PSA from Funny or Die that eventually gets around to telling us we better vote. In case that’s not enough star power to convince you to head to your local polls next Tuesday they cram in even more celebrities. Jennifer Aniston, Usher, Eva Longoria, Ellen Degeneres, Forrest Whitaker, Jonah Hill, Halle Berry, Dustin Hoffman, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, Djimon Hounsou, Natalie Portman, Will.i.am, Selma Blair, and Benicio Del Toro make very brief cameos at the end.
Tom Cruise even makes an appearance and you can tell that he’s lost weight. He looks like the Cruise of yore and I have to say I see that glimmer of hotness trying to fight with the crazy, although the crazy always wins in the end. Steven Spielberg comes on to talk to Cruise and explains the concept of the ad – that they’re trying to be sarcastic by telling people not to vote.
Harrison Ford says the concept doesn’t work for him and that 537 people decided the 2000 election. Most if the celebrities agree that it doesn’t make sense and they start to disagree with Spielberg as the director, who rips up the script and tells them to “say what’s in their heart.” They then change the tactic to say they’re voting and emphatically tell us to vote. Average Americans come on too and state what matters to them this year. Issues like gun control, ending the Iraq war, and having the first chance to vote for an African American President, and the second chance to vote for a woman for Vice President, are mentioned.
They encourage us to send the URL declareyourself.com to five friends and remind them to find out where their polling places are and to vote. There’s also a message at the end that there is still early voting available in 31 states.
This video is full of so many celebrities that I know I kept watching it to see who would appear. It might help get the message out. Even if there wasn’t a single star telling us to vote or campaigning for a candidate there would be a record turnout this year. People are getting the message loud and clear despite some minor static from those who would rather they stay home.
I sorta don’t understand the need for “just vote” PSAs. It IS your civic duty, but as an American, it’s also your right NOT to vote if you don’t want to.
When I first turned voting age, I voted just because. Just because I could, just because people told me to, or just because I was voting for president/governor and felt the need to fill everything out whether I knew about it or not. This ended up in me just randomly picking local candidates based on nothing other than their name (not even their party affiliation). I also TRIED to understand most of the confusing wording on the props and measures; this also ended up in me often randomly selecting “yes” or “no”.
These days, I consider myself a pretty informed voter. I actually deserve to vote now.
I think celebrities encouraging young uninformed voters to “just vote no matter what/who you vote for” (i.e. the “vote or die campaign”) does more harm than good. These campaign should focus on people INFORMING themselves as voters. Otherwise people will end up voting for things just because they look good on paper. (California’s Prop 2 for instance seems like it will be good for animals, until you realize it will send California’s egg industry to other states with lower food production standards… so the animals will end up worse off).
I pretty much loved the whole sarcastic “don’t vote” thing because it made a good point. At the same time, I probably thought that because I am an enthusiastic registered 23-year-old voter.
Mostly, I love THIS because of NPH. And because there’s this random British guy (okay, Orlando Bloom) talking about voting in an American election.
Oh, wait, I just got to the part with Jason Segel. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HAIR, BELOVED?
And I agree. Tommy Cruise is looking kinda good.
yes, Elisha there should be a bigger focus on voters getting more information on the candidates positions. i too was clueless at 18 about who was running and what they stood for.
Leo’s voice is so annoying
Tommy has lost weight but I see no hotness
Roger that, I like Tom Cruise again after seeing Tropic Thunder. Plus I love movies like Minority Report. I guess I can like him as an actor, but not as a person.
ZOMG!! XENU COMMANDS YOU TO VOTE!!
Vdantev, 😆 ZOMG NON-VOTING THETANS.
The ad is really cute, but I don’t understand why they included so many Brits in it.
Kaiser – Ah yeah, British, but with Hollywood film careers. May be America’s election but it concerns the rest of the world too. When the results are in, they’ll want you, the viewer, to remember that they, the British movie star, played their part in encouraging you to vote so you’ll feel all warm and gooey-eyed and generous* towards them and support them in your cinemas and give them lots of new lucrative roles in your films.
*assuming an Obama win of course.
I, also, don’t see the problem with anyone from other countries in this world ENCOURAGING the American people to get out and vote. The US and who leads it has great bearing on the rest of the world and I have no issue with someone from any other part of it asking me to make sure I use the privilege I have that they don’t to do what I can to make sure the WORLD is taken care of.
I also take exception with the notion that the young voter shouldn’t be actively pursued. I don’t think I was the only 18-year old in the country who took the opportunity seriously and learned about what I was doing. To assume that people encouraged to get registered and get out and vote are not capable of making informed decisions is ludacris. The PSAs encouraging people to register REMIND people to get registered before deadlines. What is not positive in that? And the ones encouraging you to vote keep it in the forefront of your mind so that you USE your right. Claiming they have any effect on your “right” NOT to vote is completely unfounded. If you have an issue big enough to make the decision NOT to vote, how is Leonardo DiCaprio asking the public at large TO vote going to do anything to change that? On the other hand, for the rest of us that love the right to make a monumental decision are entertained, encouraged and reminded. There are no losers here.
Several thousand british and at least 1 canadian. So…
It’s funny, isn’t it? This is such an example of the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” thing. If these people were stripped of their looks, talent and luck and had to mope through life with the rest of us dumb shits, some would definitely be as empathetic as they perceive the american population to be.
Also, why is it that Borat still makes me fall off my chair laughing?
Sir Winston Churchill said,
“If you are under 30 and not a liberal, then you don’t have a heart…
If you are over 30 and not a conservative, then you don’t have a brain.”
i like these ads, even though it was supposed to be funny.
if you dont want to vote, then DONT VOTE. just because you see some celebs on tv doesnt mean you have to vote if you know nothing about the candidates or issues. duh, common sense. youre not a bad person if you dont vote because you arent up to speed on what exactly youre voting for. i actually think thats a pretty mature thing to do.
but then again, in this day & age, with all the technology we have available to us, if you dont know what youre voting for or what each candidate stands for, youre an imbecile. anyone can get online and educate themselves at least a little bit about whats going on in the world around you.
Isn’t Sasha baron Cohen (Borat) a British Citizen? Last time I checked they couldn’t vote unless he became a US citizen.
I finally got a chance to watch the whole thing – it was very funny. I literally did LOL at the Baldwin brothers quip – it’s funny because it’s true. 😆
I think the Brits and Canadians (who may or may not be naturalized citizens of the US) are being included to support the principle of voting as it’s the cornerstone of a democracy.
Just to put a different slant on something Elisha said, it may be your right not to vote, but it is your duty to do so.