skills/creative-director/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/jcer-great-schlep-2008.md

---
id: jcer-great-schlep-2008
title: "The Great Schlep"
brand: Jewish Council for Education and Research
agency: Droga5
year: 2008
country: US
region: north_america
industry: social_causes
pattern: [P09, P04]
category: integrated
idea_type: non_advertising
involvement: participation
channel: digital
duration: moment
goal: [behaviour_change, advocacy, awareness]
budget: low
emotion: [ironic_sincerity, belonging, hopeful]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: community
media_epoch: viral_first
awards: [unknown]
quality_score: 8
scalability: unique
risk: edgy
confidence: high
quality: full
source_url: https://droga5.com/work/the-great-schlep/
---

# The Great Schlep (JCER · 2008)

## Insight
Jewish grandparents in Florida were a decisive voting bloc for Obama — but they were being influenced more by what their grandchildren said than by any political advertising. The shortest path to winning Florida was through family dinner tables, not TV.

## Mechanic
Sarah Silverman starred in a video instructing young Jewish Americans to visit their grandparents in Florida and convince them to vote for Obama. Absurdist, irreverent, and culturally specific — it used guilt, love, and comedy to assign a political mission. The call to action was a plane ticket and a weekend.

## Why it worked
It found the real influence map, not the assumed one. Political communication usually goes direct to voters; this went to the people voters actually listen to. Silverman's tone — funny but sincere — gave cover for an earnest message that would have been insufferable if played straight.

## Steal
Before building a broadcast campaign, map the actual social influence network. Who do your targets actually change their behaviour for? Often it's not your media plan.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p09]]
- Sibling: [[red-bull-stratos-2012.md|Stratos]]
- Sibling: [[snickers-hungerithm-2016.md|Hungerithm]]
- Emotion match: [[absolut-absolut-campaign-1981.md|Absolut _____]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*