The returns are in, and Barack Obama defeated John McCain by a slim margin among voters in Nickelodeon’s “Kids’ Vote” exercise in citizenship.
More than 2.2 million youngsters ineligible to cast ballots in the real electoral brouhaha voted online in Nick’s 2008 Kids Pick the President Kids’ Vote. That’s a record response over the 20 years Nickelodeon has been running the program during each election campaign.
Sen. Obama pulled 51% of the votes (1,167,087) to Sen. McCain’s 49% (1,129,945) in a result slightly closer than polls currently indicate the presidential race actually stands.
The target demographic is kids ages nine to 14, with the intention to educate them about the process and encourage them to go out and pull the levers in real election booths when they’re enfranchised. Kids voted online Oct. 12-20 on Nick’s mobile Web site or in Nicktropolis, Nick’s virtual world.
“The Kids Pick the President campaign has introduced them to the voting process, and hopefully will make them want to be active participants when they are old enough to vote,” said Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group, in a release.
The Nick campaign started in January, mirroring the real presidential race with its first “Kids’ Primary,” which accurately picked Obama and McCain as the presidential candidates for their respective parties. Nick News aired four election-themed episodes and also ran convention coverage.
Nick.com drew 2.5 million page views since January, with its Kids Pick the President message board ranking as the second most popular one on the site. Nick’s broadband video player, TurboNick, delivered nearly 8 million streams of videos related to the presidential campaign.
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