Concept, design and realization of a campaign promoting the student parliament elections at »Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach/ Main*«

Turnout in state elections in Hesse remained above 80 percent throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but by the most recent state ballot it had fallen to a historic low of just 64.6 percent. These dismal statistics prompted the state government to introduce new voter incentives for the student parliament elections in the state’s universities. Sad but true, average participation in these elections was just 7 percent, with the »Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, Offenbach/Main« achieving a proud 14 percent. The state government decided to cut the funding for students’ bodies by 75 percent if turnout remained below 25 percent. Our Team took up the gauntlet, and in just three months conjured up a very effective multi-media campaign that drew attention to the election date with great humor. Despite working on a shoestring budget, we pulled out all the stops: megaphone announcements, posters, banners, stickers, large-format posters, guerrilla tactics, a raffle, a TV spot und much more was roped in to spread the message of minus »75 percent«. The impressive result was that with more than 65 percent, the school only just missed the two-thirds mark, and achieved the best result of all Hesse’s universities. In fact, our turnout was higher than the state-wide participation in the last state elections.

Team: Alice Deußer, Sven Gabriel, Angelika Haus, Tobias Hermann