NBC News, MSNBC Launch Vote Campaign to Encourage Registration

NBC News Group wants its viewers to vote, and in an unusual twist for a network news organization, it will help them figure out how to do so.

The NBCUniversal division, which includes NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC, is launching a PSA campaign featuring many of its top anchors, which will direct viewers to local resources where they can figure out how to register to vote in their state.

“I think we were a little inspired by the Olympics and the reaction that we saw around the country to the recent Olympic Games in Paris, and just how much attention was drawn there, and how popular the Olympic team and their athletes were, and they really did see this renewed sense of patriotism flowing from that,” Tom Clendenin, the CMO and senior VP of marketing for the NBC News Group, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And so I just really wanted to lean into that and and celebrate what it is to be American. And I think one of the most fundamental parts of that is our right to vote.”

NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and the NBC News Now streaming service will each have their own version of the spots, with anchors and hosts from each network participating.

Among the anchors and hosts appearing in the spots are Lester Holt, Kristin Welker, Steve Kornacki, Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Jen Psaki, Alex Wagner, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jim Cramer, Carl Quintanilla, Savannah Sellers, and Tom Llamas.

The spot frames voting as a most American tradition, along the same lines as baseball, or apple pie. It ends with NBC talent putting a voting sticker on. NBC notes that the campaign is non-partisan.

“I think voters around the country always kind of revel in receiving a sticker on on election day, and that kind of became a central part of our message,” Clendenin adds. “It was like, yeah, we should just have talent putting the sticker on, right? It’s not about what we say it’s just about what we all do as citizens, and having them demonstrate that felt like a smart way and simple way to powerfully get across the idea of something we all, I think, look forward to as part of Election Day.”

You can see the NBC News version of the spot below:

The campaign is unusual for a news organization. While media companies have long leaned into voting campaigns, to have a news division specifically launch its own effort is a less frequent occurrence.

NBC News says that between linear TV, streaming, and digital, it expects the campaign to receive hundreds of millions of impressions.

“We saw an opportunity, given the weight and broad distribution and reach of our assets, that it was an opportunity to do some good work for the country, in the sense that there’s the we have many rights, and I think the most fundamental right is the right to vote, and advocating for people to exercise that right felt like the right thing to do,” Clendenin says. “And I thought, given the way we reach our audiences and the engagement that we have with them, I think we’re uniquely positioned to get that message across.”