On Thursday, Oct. 27, United We Dream commissioned a new video game themed advertisement targeting young Latino men to encourage them to get out and vote ahead of the midterms with Election Day, Nov. 8 only a few days away. 

“United We Dream Action is always looking at unique and innovative ways to reach out to young and Latino voters — who are often overlooked by standard voter engagement tactics. Through our research we found that gamers want to celebrate doing hard things with their friends. Quite simply, gamers are always up for the challenge,” said UWDA’s Deputy Communications Director, José Alonso Muñoz in a press release.

United We Dream Action is one of the nation's leading national networks led by immigrant youth and allies that are focused on fighting for dignity and justice. It is a community of many immigrant youth who are building generational independent political power for those like them and others who are plagued by injustice. 

Muñoz announced the ad in a tweet. 

“If you have the skills, it’s time to engage! Excited to share a first look at this new video game ad paid by @UWDAction that will target young Latino men on Youtube encouraging them to be a voter. This started running yesterday on Youtube in zip codes over 70% Latino,” he wrote.

Also in a press release accompanying the ad is an explanation from Muñoz on his inspiration for this unique idea. He was inspired by his younger brothers, who are often online playing video games. It became an avenue to get them engaged in the elections.

“Two of whom are U.S. citizens and freshly voting age to do this research. I spent a significant amount doing language analysis on platforms used by gamers like Twitch, Discord, Stream and YouTube. In addition I analyzed video game websites and did a series of interviews with gamers all to understand how they interact with video games, how they interact with others who play video games, and how people who create and market these games communicate with players,” said Muñoz. 

The ad is based on research that was explicitly done on young Latinos and gamers earlier this year and uses 2020 census data to run in majority Latino communities and zip codes over 70% Latino.

The research was a collaboration between United We Dream Action and Harmony Labs on Latinx’s Media Consumption and Encounters with Immigration. Out of the many findings that came out of it, the one that inspired this advertisement was that young Latino Males aged 18-35 were spending a lot of their time in online gaming.

This inspired Muñoz to do his own research on some of the questions he came away asking himself. 

“How do gamers perceive and make judgements around belonging and community?” was just one. 

The results were significant findings that were used for the development and analysis of this advertisement.

Over one million Latinos will turn 18 every year for the next two decades and every 30 seconds, according to a press release from Muñoz. The significance of 18 being that it makes them eligible to vote with about 40 percent of eligible Latino voters being 18 to 35, hence the target audience with this gaming advertisement to encourage them to get involved with the upcoming midterms. 

“We’re excited to see this ad come to life using this research. To successfully energize and mobilize more people to be voters we need creative solutions that meet people where they spend time, and it’s vital that more resources are invested taking on these unique approaches to voter engagement for young Latinos,” said Muñoz.

The ad will run on YouTube until Election Day, Nov. 8. You can watch the advertisement on their official YouTube channel with the link below.