With less than two months until election day, many companies have focused their latest campaigns on voter registration and key voter issues. Check out the most notable election-themed messages from brands in our Weekly Must Reads.  

Patagonia’s Secret Message 

Patagonia has never been afraid to take a stance, and last week, they made headlines for an Easter egg political message hidden in the garment tag of a pair of men’s shorts. The tag, which reads “Vote the Assholes Out,” quickly went viral on social media. Patagonia executives soon confirmed it was a real tag, inspired by the catchphrase of the company’s founder Yvon Chouinard. The assholes in question, according to Patagonia, are politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis. By last Wednesday, the shorts had already sold out online. 

Unlike other cause marketing campaigns, Patagonia’s tags aren’t flashy or self-promotional. It’s like a secret message from the brand to its customers, and many Patagonia fans on Twitter noted that the tags deepened their loyalty to the company. Read more about Patagonia’s activism efforts here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90551636/patagonia-sells-out-of-shorts-with-tags-that-read-vote-the-assholes-out 

OkCupid Makes Voting Sexy Again 

Forget MILFs and DILFs. In OkCupid’s latest election-focused campaign, the dating app is encouraging users to seek out VILFs – voters I’d like to…you know. As part of the campaign, OkCupid has added voter badges that allow members to signify that they’re registered to vote. They’ve also created a campaign video that spoofs political attack ads as well as VILF-branded merchandise, such as pins, stickers, t-shirts and bags. 

According to executives at OkCupid, the campaign is an initiative to encourage young people to register to vote. They’re using VILF to bring life to political activism and remind people that there’s nothing sexier than exercising your rights to vote. Check out the first campaign video and more details here: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/okcupid-is-trying-to-make-vilf-happen-ahead-of-the-election/?itm_source=parsely-api 

Facebook To Limit Hate Speech in Groups 

Following recent boycotts from brands and celebrities, Facebook announced added measures to limit hate speech used in their groups. Groups that continually engage in hate speech will be removed from the platform, and individual hate-filled posts or comments will also be deleted by Facebook. According to the social network, their approach will be remove, reduce, inform. Facebook will remove groups that violate their new rules, reduce the distribution of groups spreading misinformation and inform users when they’ve encountered misinformation on the site. 

Facebook has also introduced more restrictions for QAnon groups in the past month. Though the site did not completely ban groups of the far-right conspiracy network, they did remove them from group recommendations, restricted their reach in searches and reduced their newsfeed content. Find a complete list of Facebook’s new restrictions here: https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-cracks-down-on-hate-speech-in-groups/ 

Waves of Brands Encourage Voter Registration 

In this election year, more brands than ever are using their influence to encourage citizens to register to vote. Companies including Spotify, Live Nation, Foot Locker and Snapchat have introduced voting campaign on social media, incentivized employees to work polls and even created their own registration sites. Most are focused on reaching young Gen Z and Millennial voters, who tend to have the lowest voter turnout rates.  

In one notable campaign, Reddit is calling out users for voting more frequently on their platform than in actual elections. Reddit reportedly sees about 165 million votes on posts every day, while the 2016 election received only 140 million votes. See a growing list of companies promoting voting rights here: https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/how-brands-are-getting-voters-polls-and-mailboxes-2020/2281291