Shut up and vote. Use your finger, use it to vote. Don’t be an idiot, go out and vote. No, it is not your dad who is telling you this, but the hot and happening Bollywood and rock stars. Sonam Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Rakeysh Mehra and the entire cast of Bollywood flick, Dilli 6, has jumped on to the Jaago Re campaign.

In the star-studded campaign, the spotlight is on youth and rightly so. As Abhishek Bachchan, in his promotional ad campaign, says, “only 16 % of young urban workers in India actually vote.”

“The average age of our country is 23 and average age of our politicians in Union cabinet is 62, that is really old, that is so not cool,” says Sonam Kapoor in her promotional campaign. Never before has the electoral process in our country been so funky.

With general elections round the corner, Tata Tea and Bangalore-based NGO Janaagraha are going all out to woo as many young voters as possible. Having launched ‘Jaago Re One Billion Votes’ campaign last year, the two partners are adopting every possible youth-oriented strategy to motivate them to vote. Till date, the Jaago Re website has got about 4 lakh registered votes since it got launched in September 2008.

The two partners are also organising a chain of rock shows across the metros starting March 20. To get their message straight into the heart of youngsters, a music video too has been shot with Bangalore-based rock band Thermal and A Quarter, saying ‘shut up and vote’.

Sharat Potharaju, head of communications & marketing of Jaago Re campaign at Janaagraha told Financial Chronicle, “We are using music as a medium to motivate young people to go and vote, as music binds them. We are leveraging this binding force.” He added, “Never before has India seen a voter registration campaign of this stature, scale and magnitude targeted at young population of our country.” An animation film has been launched as well.

Moreover, the volunteers of Jaago Re campaign have visited more than 200 institutions including colleges and companies urging the students and professionals to go out and vote. Tata Tea launched the Jaago Re brand campaign in 2007 as the main communication and advertising tool for the company’s brand portfolio. Janaagraha joined hands with Tata Tea to take the brand identity further by weaving in the mantle of social responsibility into the brand identity.

Sangeeta Talwar, executive director of marketing at Tata Tea said, “The Jaago Re campaign has now moved from an idea to an implementation stage Now Jaago Re is all about awakening yourself as the citizen of your country, it is about exercising your first right. This campaign has left deep impressions on the minds of young people.”

So, guys and gals, log on to Jaago Re.com to learn more and vote.