MTV hosts panel discussion to urge the youth to Rock The Vote

Young entrepreneurs, marketers, politicians, VJ's, comedians come together highlighting how the 12 crore first time voters could change the game in 2014 polls

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | April 10, 2014

MTV Rock The Vote L-R Rishi Jaitly, Ira Trivedi, Aditya Swamy, Bobby Pawar, Anoop Gandhi

As the nation gears up to vote elect a new government, 'Hero MTV Rock the Vote' brought together people from different walks of life which included prominent political figures like Shaina NC (representing BJP), Meera Sanyal (representing AAP), Sanjay Jha (representing Congress), youth marketing experts Aditya Swamy – EVP and Business Head of MTV India, Rishi Jaitly – Head, Twitter, Bobby Pawar - Chief Creative Office, Publicis India, Ira Trivedi – Author, Dhiraj Nayyar –CEO Think India Foundation and Editor-at-large, Firstpost.com and Anup Gandhi – Owner of Bonobo at the Canvas Laugh Factory in Mumbai to urge first time voters to go out and exercise their vote.

'Hero MTV Rock the Vote' is a wake-up call for all those who are above 18 years of age and have an opinion on things around them. Aimed at making young people aware of their power to vote, decide and be heard, MTV hosted a panel discussion featuring politicians and youth experts and moderated by MTV VJ Jose Covaco. To lighten the serious mood of the discussion, and to bring in a youth flavor, the discussion was followed by an Improv Comic Act by Schitz en Giggles.

Aditya Swamy

Talking on Hero MTV Rock the Vote campaign reaching out to the youth to urge them to vote, Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business Head, MTV India said, “Young people more than ever believe they have the power to bring change. Rock the Vote encourages them to act on this belief. Using pop culture and icons to fuel conversations is a way demystifying the world of politics for the millennials. I believe that young people will show their power in this election and this will only grow stronger in the years to come.”

The 'Hero MTV Rock the Vote' initiative has been launched as a wake-up call for the youth to drive political awareness and the need to vote. The 7 month long initiative started in December and builds on a number of fun and serious activities involving music, Bollywood and humorto re-emphasize the need to vote. Starting from campus festival integrations, cartoon strips of C'mmon Man, voter education camps, college concerts, live debates to Twitter Townhalls with prominent politicians; the initiative has connected with millions of first time voters through various youth touch points such as colleges and cafes.

• MTV's approach includes arranging special 'Rock the Vote' nights at prominent college festivals by getting popular artists and bands like Mohit Chauhan, YoYo Honey Singh, Indian Ocean and Nikhil Chinapa to make the campaign much bigger
• MTV held its first Twitter Townhall in India where prominent politicians like Meera Sanyal, Shaina NC, Priya Dutt and Milind Deora were seen responding to questions by Twitter users on real time. The activity witnessed a tweet reach to potential 14 Mn in Twitter universe
• In collaboration with Hero, MTV held youth voting awareness rides called 'Ek Ride Desh Ke Naam' across 10 cities
• MTV got together with young and happening Bollywood stars such as Varun Dhawan, Nargis Fakhri, Ileana D'Cruz, Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor to create tongue in cheek – 'Thank you for not voting' videos
• MTV created special half an hour Rock The Vote Bulletins which are a satirical take on issues faced by citizens of India today
• The final endorsement of a philosophy comes when a fan sports the merchandise. Keeping that in mind, MTV has partnered with Puma to create a new line t-shirts pushing the Rock the vote messaging
• Also, a powerful music anthem in collaboration with Papon and Clinton Cerejo will soon be released as a final reminder messaging

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