The following is from WWE.com:
Smackdown Your Vote! honored by Cable Industry
Written: November 2, 2009
World Wrestling Entertainment has won a 2009 Beacon Award in Community Relations for its efforts to encourage young adults ages 18 to 30 to vote in the 2008 national election through its program, WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote!.
Every year, The Association of Cable Communicators sponsors the Beacon Awards, cable’s highest award for communications excellence. Cable operators, programming networks, cable associations and new technology partners are recognized for achievements in public affairs and communications initiatives in categories such as community relations, competitive response and programming. The Beacon Award winners of 2009 achieve peer, industry and local market recognition for their exemplary work and set a standard for their colleagues to emulate.
WWE helped to contribute to a record turnout among 18- to 30-year-olds in the 2008 elections working with its partners in Smackdown Your Vote!, which include the League of Women Voters, the National Association of Secretaries of State, Harvard Institute of Politics, Rock the Vote, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics Youth Leadership Initiative, CIRCLE, Sacred Heart University and mun2.
As part of Smackdown Your Vote!, WWE and its partners created a national voter issues paper for 18- to 30-year-olds. Both President Barack Obama and John McCain agreed to answer the 18 to 30 VIP questions on economy, health care, affordable higher education, the war in Iraq and the environment. Those answers were posted on a specially created WWE microsite and on SmackdownYourVote.com.
WWE had its Superstars and Divas attend the Republican and Democratic national conventions and provided coverage of their convention activities within WWE television programming and on WWE.com. (MORE) The highlight of the Smackdown Your Vote! campaign were the special video messages from the three main Presidential candidates – Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain – that premiered on Raw on USA Network. The videos were also played on SmackDown and ECW. WWE also worked with Sacred Heart University and Cable in the Classroom to create a series of 10 videos reflecting both Democratic and Republican viewpoints, to be used as part of Cable in the Classroom’s eLECTIONS online game. Those videos were hosted by WWE Superstars and Divas and were also posted on WWE.com and SmackdownYourVote.com.
See the complete list of this year’s Beacon Award winners at Multichannel.com.
