Why Goodby Silverstein and CCGF Want Americans to 'Vote for Breonna Taylor'

During the 2016 US presidential election, 100 million registered voters didn’t cast a ballot, making it clear that the problem isn’t just getting people to register. It was about getting ambivalent voters to recognise the power and importance of their votes. And with just 30 days left before election day, those same trends seem to be appearing this year. So, to combat the general apathy toward the 2020 candidates, Courageous Conversation Global Foundation (CCGF), which is focused on racial equity, is launching ‘Vote For Them’.

 

Created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the campaign reimagines election signs by replacing the names of politicians with the names of victims of police brutality. It’s a reminder to people that they aren’t just voting for a candidate; they are voting for all those who can’t - people like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Stephon Clark, Eric Garner and Philando Castile. 

 

A website, www.VoteForThem2020.com, actually allows people to print the signs so they can put them in their own yard. 

 

“It was important for us to continue the conversation about police brutality, to keep saying their names,” says GS&P associate creative director Anthony O’Neill. “Racial injustice is an issue that affects all of us, but it’s also something we can all change if we vote. It might not be immediate, but the road to change starts today, and it starts at the polls.”

 

‘Vote For Them’ heightens the effort from CCGF to speak out against systemic racism at the hands of police. Weeks prior to the beginning of national sheltering in place, CCGF, in partnership with GS&P, released ‘Not a Gun’, which raised awareness about the alarming fact that black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people. Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the ‘Not a Gun’ team at GS&P created newspaper ads that ran on June 20 and that read ‘Being Black Is Not a Crime’; the ads were at once markers of the historic date June 19 (Juneteenth) and protest signs at president Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa on the 20th. 

 

“To truly spark the change we seek, we have to vote. ‘Vote for Them’ highlights the reasons why each one of our votes matters,” says Glenn Singleton, founder and board chair, Courageous Conversation Global Foundation. 

 

In addition to the campaign signs, CCGF and GS&P created a film and an Instagram profile, @VoteForThem2020, on which citizens can learn about policies that affect black people, indigenous people and other people of colour (BIPOC).

 

“We see it, even with the recent events with the Supreme Court,” said GS&P associate creative director Rony Castor. “People need to understand that elections affect everything around us.” “Voting is the power we have as Americans to make change. By casting a spotlight on how votes affect real people like Breonna Taylor, we hope to enforce how much every vote counts.”