Ellington

New York Times reports: "WHILE partisan political ads continue to dominate attention, a rapidly growing number of nonpartisan campaigns from recently created groups are trying the tactics of Madison Avenue pros to register new, and especially young, voters. Today, Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan voter-registration group started by the television producer Norman Lear, will raise two giant billboards in Times Square, showing Christina Aguilera and André 3000 with their mouths held shut, next to the message, 'Only you can silence yourself.

"'We're approaching a cause as a brand,' said Howard Benenson, chief executive at Benenson Janson in Studio City, Calif., the Declare Yourself agency. 'It's not any different than any corporate American company," he said. "It's all about creating a brand of passion for consumers.'

"The great unregistered are receiving pitches from groups with wildly divergent world views, including Cast the Vote, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Redeem the Vote, Voter Virgin, VoteLoud, Voces del Pueblo and Punk Voter. Rock the Vote and Choose or Lose, continuing campaigns that were established in the 1990's, are veterans by now."