Be Woke.Vote · 2018
The Messy Truth with Van Jones: twelve conversations about why the vote matters
In 2018, Robert F. Smith, Deon Taylor and AONE Creative created The Messy Truth with Van Jones for Be Woke.Vote: twelve conversations with guests including Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian West, will.i.am and Chelsea Handler, released as a podcast and on YouTube in the weeks before the midterms. AONE led the creative direction, and Darrick Angelone was one of its producers.
The brief
A conversation series for young voters
Be Woke.Vote set out to reach young voters of color, Gen Z and Millennials, before the 2018 midterms. The Messy Truth put that goal in the hands of voices they already followed: Van Jones sitting down with actors, musicians, comedians, a filmmaker and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, to talk about race, justice and why the vote matters.
Each conversation was made to work as a podcast, as a full video episode and as shorter cuts, with the voter tools on Be Woke.Vote one tap away.
What we did
Format, production and distribution
- Format
Van Jones and one guest
Each episode is a single conversation between Van Jones and one guest, from ten to twenty-four minutes long, filmed on a set built for the series.
- Guests
Twelve voices young voters follow
Jamie Foxx, HaHa Davis, will.i.am, Bresha Webb, Michael Ealy, Sybrina Fulton, Shameik Moore, Mike Colter, Deon Taylor, Chelsea Handler, BJ the Chicago Kid and Kim Kardashian West.
- Creative direction
Led by Darrick Angelone and AONE
We led the creative direction, and Darrick produced the series with Roxanne Avent, Heather Kritzer, Suzanne Summerville and Omar Joseph, for executive producer Robert F. Smith.
- Podcast
Audio first, then video
The twelve episodes went out as a podcast from October 18 to 27, 2018, then again as video podcast episodes on Be Woke.Vote from January to August 2019.
- Distribution
YouTube, Revolt TV and Be Woke.Vote
Every episode went up on the Be Woke.Vote YouTube channel, Revolt TV picked up the series, and Be Woke.Vote carried the episodes next to its voter tools.
- Watch
All twelve episodes, here
Every episode now plays on its own page on this site, from the series page.
Results
Reach and recognition
- 12Episodes, released October 18 to 27, 2018
- 128K+YouTube views across the twelve episodes
- 30M+Revolt TV’s audience, announced with its pickup of the series
- Time featured The Messy Truth with Van Jones, with the Jamie Foxx episode, in 2018
- Revolt TV picked up the twelve episodes for its audience in 2018
- Kim Kardashian West’s episode is the most watched, with more than 67,000 views on YouTube
- Be Woke.Vote at the Webby Awards, 2019: a nomination in Social, News and Politics, and a Webby Honoree in Podcasts, Best Host
YouTube views: the Be Woke Vote channel, October 2026. Revolt TV audience: Revolt TV, October 2018.
On set
will.i.am and Van Jones
will.i.am talked about reaching young voters through art and music, and about Big Love, his video on gun violence. Watch the episode
What it taught us
Give people a reason to stay
Young voters gave these conversations their time because they were worth it: familiar voices, real questions and room to answer them. Programming like this carries a message further than an ad can, and we build every series and campaign with that in mind.
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Series
Want a conversation series with real reach?
The Messy Truth paired Van Jones with stars, artists and Sybrina Fulton in twelve conversations before the midterms. Tell us the voice, the audience and the date that matters.