In September, a PSA titled ‘Get Your Booty to the Poll’ went viral. The ad featured a group of exotic dancers encouraging people to go out and vote, stressing the importance of choosing local leadership that would be on the ballot. Now, the team of Atlanta natives are turning their focus to January’s Georgia runoffs.
For the runoff, which can tip the balance of the senate in Democrats’ favor, the campaign is expanding its target demographic to young voters as well. On Monday, the official GYBTTP Instagram posted an image reading “HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You’re grown now. Prove it. Vote.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CIf8YrFLJn8/?igshid=j1bqokdkhpyt
The initial goal of the PSA was to get more Black men to vote. According to the official Get Your Booty to the Poll website, director Angela Barnes “thought it would be a great idea to have exotic dancers from some of Atlanta’s finest gentlemen’s clubs to tell their patrons and fans to ‘Get their booties to the poll!”
In the original PSA, the dancers featured in the video stress the importance of voting on the down-ballot.
“A district attorney decides not to prosecute,” says a dancer in the video. “Including whether or not to go after dirty cops. Do you know who elects the DA? We do, but you don’t want to vote.”
In the post-election, post-COVID season, the GYBTTP team intends to combat broader issues such as voter apathy and suppression. As of December 7th, the GoFundMe “Get Your Booty to the Poll Run Off Edition” has raised $36,531 of its $50k goal.
“We are back to our day jobs, so we need to hire a social media manager and a community organizer to keep the campaign going,” wrote director Angela Barnes and producer Paul Fox on the GoFundMe page. “We’d even like to shoot another PSA! – if we have enough support!”
