'Reno 911!' Stars Partner With Declare Yourself to Produce Satirical Video Shorts

'Reno 911!' Stars Partner With Declare Yourself to Produce Satirical Video Shorts

Comedic Spots Drive July 2 Website Launch to Engage All 18 Year-Olds to Register to Vote in the 2008 Election

LOS ANGELES, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The creators and stars of successful TV and film franchise "Reno 911!" -- Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon -- have partnered with Declare Yourself, the national nonpartisan, nonprofit youth voter initiative, to produce a series of comedic voting-themed video shorts. Announced today by Norman Lear, founder of Declare Yourself, the satirical campaign will kick off the July 2 launch of Declare Yourself's revamped website at http://www.declareyourself.com/.

(Photo:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070702/LAM044 )

Full of sarcasm and satire, 20 different spots were shot in Los Angeles and will undoubtedly engage and empower a new generation of voters accustomed to social networking via the Internet and viral video sharing. More importantly, the video shorts are being used as a tool to connect Declare Yourself with new voters in its goal to register every eligible 18-year-old to vote by the 2008 presidential election.

"Declare Yourself is pulling out all the stops to connect to this tech savvy group of new voters," said Lear. "What Ben and Tom have come up with is not only funny, but quite brilliant and we're thrilled that they've lent their significant talents to our effort."

"It was both an honor and a pleasure to work on such a worthwhile project with Norman Lear, one of our comedy heroes," said Garant and Lennon. The acclaimed funnymen were enlisted to bring their off-beat and engaging humor to the campaign, whose shorts feature two characters named "The Man," both white, rich, smug and more than a bit out of touch. In each of the spots, The Man thanks 18 year olds for NOT voting, hilariously covering topics that range from campaign contributions and bloggers to the environment, religion and, painfully, rap music.

Declare Yourself's 2008 campaign will leverage the enormous reach of Yahoo! (Premier Online Information Partner) and MySpace (Premier Social Networking Partner), YouTube, Google, Friendster, Evite and Good Search. Major media partners including Clear Channel and Comedy Central are also on board.

The redesigned website (http://www.declareyourself.com/), will serve as a virtual "one-stop shop" for voting tools and election information providing an all-encompassing multimedia destination for young people on the web. In addition to online voter registration, the site will offer comprehensive election information, exclusive content from key partners, and much more. Users will also be able to forward any of the recently shot video shorts along to friends while encouraging them to get register to vote for the 2008 presidential election. Golden Globe winner America Ferrera, ABC's "Ugly Betty," and Hayden Panettiere from NBC's hit show, "Heroes," who turns 18 this year, serve as spokespeople for the project.

Declare Yourself registered more than 1.2 million young people (ages 18-29) in the 2004 and 2006 elections. The 2008 nonprofit campaign has been created in response to research which shows that getting a young person to register and vote at age 18 is the strongest predictor of lifelong voting behavior. The campaign builds on the momentum of the record number of young voters in 2004 and an increase of more than two million young voters in the 2006 midterm election over 2002.

Declare Yourself has already announced partnerships with an unprecedented list of the most popular online destinations. A full list of project partners and their respective Declare Yourself initiatives, celebrity spokespeople and further details about the campaign will be unveiled at Declare Yourself's official launch event in Los Angeles this Fall.

About Declare Yourself

Declare Yourself is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to energize and empower every eligible 18-year-old in America to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election. Partnering with leaders in education, the entertainment industry, popular online destinations and media outlets, the fashion industry and retailers, Declare Yourself registered well over one million people in the 2004 and 2006 elections at http://www.declareyourself.com/.

Declare Yourself, founded by Norman Lear, was launched in 2003 as the culmination of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a nationwide multi-media exhibit and tour of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.

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Photo: NewsCom:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070702/LAM044
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http://photoarchive.ap.org/
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Declare Yourself

CONTACT: Elizabeth Rosenberg of Declare Yourself, +1-310-385-4186,
ElizabethR@DeclareYourself.com; or Doug Piwinski of BNC, +1-310-854-4834,
dPiwinski@BNCPR.com, for Declare Yourself

Web site:

http://www.declareyourself.com/

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