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Cingular Wireless Empowers Young Americans to Enter the Political Fray
ATLANTA, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Calling all young voters! Cingular Wireless is giving America's youth a voice in the political process during the 2004 Presidential Election. Through morning "wake-up calls" from top celebrities to election-related contests and text messaging (SMS) surveys, Cingular is launching its first major initiative to drive young Americans to the polls through the wireless technology this audience uses everyday.
The multi-pronged grassroots campaign is aimed at driving voter registration, participation and issue education, and includes partnerships with MTV's "Choose or Lose 2004" programming; Comedy Central and its "Indecision 2004" programming; and Motorola through its "Rock The Vote" initiatives.
With its partners, Cingular will have the unique capabilities and immediacy of wireless to:
- Help young voters send and receive messages to encourage voter
registration
- Receive election news and updates from relevant news sources and
celebrities
- Learn about candidates' positions on particular issues, and
- Participate in and receive the results of wide-ranging political polls.
Young Americans can also check out the Cingular Election Headquarters on its new youth portal at http://www.rucingular.com/election to learn more about Cingular's partnerships and ways to get involved in this year's Presidential election.
"Cingular is excited to help young voters get more involved in the 2004 Presidential Election, and ultimately, exercise their right to vote," said Marc Lefar, Chief Marketing Officer of Cingular Wireless. "We are satisfied that we have found ways to use wireless technology in educating and engaging young Americans in the democratic process."
Highlights of Cingular Wireless's election partnerships include:
MTV "Choose or Lose": Through its premier cross-platform sponsorship of MTV's "Choose or Lose 2004" program, Cingular will sponsor special events, election-related contests, and political polls on Cingular Wireless devices, via text messaging, as well as on MTV.com. Originally launched in 1992, "Choose or Lose" is MTV's comprehensive pro-social campaign to inform young adults about the political process, voice their most urgent political concerns, compel leading Presidential candidates to address those concerns, and mobilize massive numbers of young adults aged 18-30 to register and vote. In 2004, MTV's "Choose or Lose" on-air and off-air programming will include regular news segments, issue-based specials, candidate interviews, primary and convention coverage and grass-roots events, and will culminate with an election night wrap-up. "Choose or Lose 2004" will also partner with Cingular Wireless to present an exclusive online and wireless "PRElection" in October 2004. This simulated, secure online and wireless election will allow registered young adults to vote this fall for who they believe should be President. In registering to vote online for the PRElection, users will be able to register to vote in their home states for the 2004 Presidential Election.
Rock the Vote: Cingular's co-title sponsorship with Motorola of this leading non-profit's activities will feature unique SMS opportunities that will reach voters where they live, work, play, and go to school. Components include providing civic, election, and entertainment content for a mobile environment via Motorola's Rock the Vote Mobile service, which young Americans can sign-up for at rtvmo.com. In addition, there will be a dedicated interactive area on the RTV Bus Tour where visitors can use Motorola handsets with Cingular Wireless service to play cutting-edge games, enter sweepstakes, and download election-related material. Rock the Vote's goal is to register one million new voters this year and mobilize 20 million voters, ages 18-30 years old, to the polls on Election Day.
Comedy Central: Cingular will have an integrated cross-platform sponsorship with Comedy Central surrounding the network's "Indecision 2004" programming that will allow Cingular Wireless users to have their voices heard by not only the politicians, but the programmers of Comedy Central as well. Throughout the year, Cingular Wireless users will interact on both "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn." This will include select "Daily Show" election polls, monthly "'Tough Crowd Tough Questions," and special "Tough Crowd" show segments where users tell Colin Quinn and his panel of comedians what topics they'd like to see discussed via SMS polls. In addition, "Pulse of America" poll questions -- a spoof on political polling -- will appear on Comedy Central's website, comedycentral.com. Cingular and Comedy Central will also hold a national sweepstakes in which one lucky winner will board the Indecision Election Express train to travel to Washington D.C. on November 1 for a comedy performance and then to New York City on Election Day to attend special election night festivities.
ABOUT CINGULAR WIRELESS
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth , serves more than 25 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular has launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular provides cellular/PCS service in 43 of the top 50 markets nationwide, and provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/ .
For more information about Cingular's election partnerships and ways to get involved in this year's election, check out http://www.rucingular.com/election .
Cingular Wireless
CONTACT: Kelleigh Scott of Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-6321, orkelleigh.scott@cingular.com; or Sherri Weiss of Fleishman-Hillard,+1-212-453-2237, or weisss@fleishman.com
Web site: http://www.cingular.com/http://www.mtv.com/http://rtvmo.com/http://comedycentral
.com/http://www.rucingular.com/election
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