Operation Black Vote and Saatchi & Saatchi Encourage BAME community to vote

With less than a month to go until the EU Referendum, Operation Black Vote, the organisation dedicated to enabling the African British and Asian British communities to claim their place in politics, has partnered again with Saatchi & Saatchi London to create a hard-hitting poster to encourage BAME communities to register to vote in the EU Referendum.

The “A vote is a vote” campaign aims to empower the BAME community to use their voice – and shows that their vote carries as much weight as anyone else’s.

The poster features an elderly Asian British woman being berated by an aggressive thug. The pair are seated on a see-saw – demonstrating the balance of their equivalent power – with the strapline: “A vote is a vote.”

The image will run across digital poster sites in London and Manchester, and will be accompanied by a social media campaign to raise awareness and provide easily accessible links and guides on how to register. Media was planned and bought by Publicis Media and Posterscope.

There are approximately 4 million BAME voters in the UK, and another 400k British Commonwealth voters eligible to vote in the EU Referendum, each of whom can help to shape the country in the future. However, around 30% are not even registered to vote, and many of those registered do not make it to the polls.

The poster is part of OBV’s national consultation with the BAME community on the subject of Europe. OBV is running a series of nationwide events and debates to investigate and inform opinion and encourage and promote voter registration ahead of next month’s referendum.

The two final debates in the national tour will take place in Bristol on May 26th and Glamorgan on May 25th. They will continue to open up the debate to BAME communities on both sides of the EU Referendum argument as well as providing an arena for discussion of other crucial issues such as inequality.

Last year, in the run up to the General Election, Operation Black Vote and Saatchi & Saatchi worked with Tinie Tempah, David Harewood, Sol Campbell and Ade Adepitan on a poster campaign which saw the celebrities turn their skin colour white to demonstrate that if the BAME community does not vote, they are removing the colour and diversity from Britain.

Simon Woolley, Director of OBV, said: “Perhaps the greatest thing about democracy is that one person’s vote has no more value than another person: A vote is a vote. With some Black and minority ethnic communities still unlikely to be registered to vote we need to change their minds. These potential voters could easily decide one of the biggest questions of the last three decades – whether we remain in the EU or leave.”

Magnus Djaba, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London added: “This is a message about democracy, not a message about race. Whichever community you’re from, it hits home.”

Registering to vote takes no longer than five minutes. Sign up at http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/

The last day to register to vote is the 7th June.

  A vote is a vote, BAME, Digital, EU Referendum, Magnus Djaba, Operation Black Vote, Politics, Poster, Posterscope, Publicis Media, Saatchi & Saatchi, Saatchi & Saatchi London, Simon Woolley