‘SNL’ and ‘Parks and Recreation’ Writers Pitch Ads to Help Biden Reach Gen Z, Young Millennials
Hollywood creatives, including writers from “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks and Recreation,” have been meeting monthly for at least half a year to pitch ideas to Won’t PAC Down, a new super PAC that’s attempting to improve President Joe Biden’s relationship with young voters, Politico reported Sunday. The super PAC has brought on “millennial and Gen Z writers, directors and producers to help craft pro-Biden content that’s specifically engineered to sell an octogenarian candidate to typically disillusioned and hard-to-reach voters under 30.”
The first ads, all written for and by millennials and Gen Z, are expected to hit social media and the news media in July. Travis Helwig, a former head writer for Crooked Media, heads the writer room and emphasized to Politico that the organization does not intend to over-use celebrity endorsements as part of its strategy.
“There’s a big difference between putting a celebrity on camera and having them say, ‘if you liked me in ‘Madame Web,’ then you’re going to love voting,’ versus what we’re doing,” he explained. “We’re taking the best young writers and directors, who are the age and demographics of the people we’re targeting, using poll-tested messaging, and shaping it in a way that will resonate with young people and get them excited.”
Specifically which directors and writers are involved were not immediately made clear.
Won’t PAC Down has enlisted the help of pollster John Della Volpe, who specializes in the youth vote, and Democratic strategist Doug Rubin.
The question of the youth vote has dogged Biden for most of the year. A NPR/PBS “NewsHour”/Marist poll from May 2024 showed that he led by 4 points with voters under 45 and by 6 points with Gen Z and Millennials—when the groups were asked about a Biden/Trump match-up. But after independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, as well as Green Party candidate Jill Stein were added, Biden fell 4 points behind Trump, and Trump led by 6 points with Gen Z/Millennial voters and 8 points with voters under 45.
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, explained to NPR that there are several reasons young voters are having difficulty connecting to Biden. As NPR put it, “Younger voters don’t approve of the job Biden is doing, don’t particularly like him very much, don’t think he has the mental fitness to be president and don’t think he’s handling the most important issues very well.”
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