PRESS RELEASE:
White Man Behind A Desk asks you to vote. Please.
Thursday 29th September, 2016
Satirical webseries White Man Behind A Desk released a video today pleading with viewers to get involved in their local elections. Presenter Robbie Nicol and the
team have started a social media campaign to make it easier for people to learn about their local mayoral candidates,
targeting younger voters in particular.
Robbie is worried about the historically low voter turnout in local elections, calling them “the black mole of NZ
politics – you know it's there, but it's just so easy to ignore.” He thinks one of the culprits might be that it's
sometimes difficult for voters to know even or care who their candidates are or what they're about.
“Candidates know that young people don’t vote, so they don’t bother appealing to young voters,” explains Robbie in the
video. “And when they do reach out, they’re not very good at it.”
Robbie and the team have been contacting mayoral candidates and asking them to post their policies on social media, with
a special hashtag corresponding to their area (e.g. #PleaseAuckland, #PleaseWellington, #PleaseNelson). Wannabe mayors
from all over the country - including Phil Goff, Chloe Swarbrick and Justin Lester - are getting involved.
The production team is hoping to engage people who would normally leave their voting papers in their envelopes, with a
particular focus on young people. In the video, he explains the STV voting system via a Hogwarts analogy and describing
the 21.8% of the voting population aged between 18 and 29 as equivalent to “slightly more than one member of One
Direction.”
The video can be viewed and shared from 3pm today on YouTube www.youtube.com/whitemanbehindadesk or on White Man Behind A Desk's Facebook page. Voting for the local body elections closes on October 8th.
Background:
White Man Behind A Desk is a satirical webseries that plays on YouTube and Facebook, fronted by Robbie Nicol from his bedroom and made an
actual thing by Elsie Bollinger and Sally Bollinger. 10 episodes were released in 2015 and the show became the first
ever winner of NZ Web Fest’s ‘Best Web Show’ award.
The second season started last week with the first episode reaching almost 50,000 people on Facebook in less than 5
days, and gaining almost 25,000 views across platforms. In each episode the host, Robbie Nicol, monologues about a
recent political issue. The aim is that it’s funny, original and informative. It’s content that is difficult to put into
traditional narratives of the left and the right, encouraging people to think for themselves. The show has been featured
in the Sunday Star Times, the Listener, and RNZ, as well as in new media that people actually read.
If you like what the team are making, you can contribute to their production costs: