Be Woke.Vote · 2020
The Truth: one chair, one light and eighteen voices before the 2020 election
For Be Woke.Vote in 2020, Saint JHN, Trey Songz, Terrence J, Big Boy, Justine Skye, Lance Gross and twelve more sat alone in a white chair under a single light and spoke to young voters about the state of the country. Darrick Angelone was one of its producers, and AONE Creative ran the Be Woke.Vote site, creative and paid media around it.
The brief
A raw account of the state of the country
Be Woke.Vote set out to reach young voters of color, Gen Z and Millennials, before the 2020 election. The Truth stripped the format down to one chair under one light: musicians, actors, radio and TV personalities and creators sat down alone and said what they saw in the country, in their own words.
The message was simple: a non-vote is a vote with someone else’s voice. The pieces ran on Instagram and YouTube, with the voter tools on Be Woke.Vote one tap away.
What we did
Format, production and release
- Format
One chair, one light
Each guest sat alone in a white chair under a single lamp, filmed in black and white, in pieces from about one to six minutes long.
- Guests
Eighteen voices
Saint JHN, Trey Songz, Terrence J, Big Boy, Justine Skye, Lance Gross, Tyrin Turner, Christina Cooper, Kenyon Dixon, Ashley Monique Harper, Angela C. Styles, Butta, 5ive Mics, Liife, Mariah McKenzie, Maura Chanz, Miss Diddy and Rodney Rikai.
- Production
Directed by Omar Joseph
Produced by Omar Joseph, Terrence J, Lenny S., Erin Harris and Darrick Angelone, with Robert F. Smith, Roxanne Avent and Deon Taylor as executive producers.
- The shoot
September 10, 2020
The guests were photographed in Be Woke.Vote shirts and hoodies at the shoot on September 10, 2020.
- Release
The final weekend
Thirteen of the pieces went up on the Be Woke Vote YouTube channel on October 31 and November 1, 2020, the weekend before Election Day.
- AONE Creative
Powered by AONE
We ran the Be Woke.Vote site the series lived on, along with the campaign creative and the paid media for the 2020 election.
- Watch
Thirteen pieces, here
Every piece on YouTube now plays on its own page on this site, from the series page.
Results
What went out before the election
- 18Guests in the chair
- 13Pieces on YouTube, October 31 and November 1, 2020
- 2.2K+YouTube views of Saint JHN’s piece, the most watched
- The series ran next to Tiffany D. Cross and The Beat DC as part of Be Woke.Vote’s 2020 push for young and first-time voters
- Be Woke.Vote went on to win a Webby Award in 2022
YouTube: the Be Woke Vote channel, October 2026.
On set
The shoot
The guests in Be Woke.Vote shirts and hoodies at the September 2020 shoot. See every piece
What it taught us
Let people speak for themselves
One person, one chair and one light. When the people young voters already follow speak plainly, the message carries further than an ad can, and we build every series and campaign with that in mind.
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Campaign series
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The Truth put eighteen voices in one chair under one light before the 2020 election. Tell us who you need to reach and the date that matters.