‘Vote Yes’ text message sent out over the weekend to mixed responses
Image: Vote Yes text message. Image: ABC News.
This weekend saw a campaign of doorknocking and text messaging to encourage people around Australia to vote yes to marriage equality, but not everyone was happy to receive the message.
Thousands of people received a text message linking them to a pro marriage equality website, a text that was sent to randomly generated mobile numbers, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“The campaign is using every resource available to make sure fairness and equality are achieved for all Australians,” said Alex Greenwich of The Equality Campaign.
“The campaign has a responsibility to encourage every Australian to post their survey and we have done this through doorknocking, media, advertising, social media and SMS messaging.
“It’s so important to reach as many Australians as possible and remind them this is a vote about fairness and ensuring every Australian is legal under the law.”
Reactions on social media to the text messages have been divided, with some people raising privacy or harassment concerns. Some even claimed they would vote no over the matter.
“If an unsolicited text message changes your vote on marriage equality to ‘no’ then you have used it as an excuse to be a homophobe,” tweeted one person.
“Just received a text from the marriage equality yes campaign. How the hell did they get our mobile phone no. What an invasion of our privacy,” posted another.
“A text message about the marriage survey violated your privacy? Could be worse… e.g. if other people could decide who you can marry,” wrote another person.
https://twitter.com/joelcreasey/status/911899538025099266
Just received a text from the marriage equality yes campaign. How the hell did they get our mobile phone no. what an invasion of our privacy
— horseloversracinnuts (@loveracehorses1) September 23, 2017
If an unsolicited text message changes your vote on marriage equality to 'no' then you have used it as an excuse to be a homophobe.
— Daile Kelleher (@DaileKelleher) September 23, 2017
I'm all for marriage equality just not sure about this unsolicited text I received. How did they get my number? pic.twitter.com/EDFLAbibTL
— Mitch Feltscheer (@mitchfel) September 24, 2017
'I'm so angry about the Marriage Equality text message' reads angry young person tweet, amongst ads for IPhones, banks, Coca Cola and cars.
— Alanta Colley (@Lannyopolis) September 24, 2017
A text message about the marriage survey violated your privacy? Could be worse… e.g. if other people could decide who you can marry.
— Aaron Ball (@aaron4065) September 24, 2017
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I cannot believe the strategy behind the Marriage Equality Campaign – one misfire after another. Instead of irritating people with useless texts etc., why are we not pushing the line -“If your son or daughter or grandchild came to you and said “I’ve got something to tell you….” wouldn’t you want them to be treated equally and have the same opportunities as everyone else?”
A friend of mine told me he was “neutral” on the issue. When I ran the above statement past him he said “good point”. Knowing him as I do I think we just got a yes vote. Is that strategy too hard to understand? Until we personalise what we say all we are pushing is “them and us”- which is a very weak strategy.
Good comment. Fortunately a lot of people had made up their minds along the lines of the point you’ve put forward before the “campaign” began, else we’d really be in trouble.
I saw a Yes ad on a news show comparing advertising campaigns which I haven’t seen since (but I’m not on commercial tv much admittedly) – it featured a young lesbian woman calling her grandmother to ask the grandmother for a Yes vote in the survey. It was fantastic. It made me cry, but in a good way. I saw that ad and thought ‘we’re going to win this’, then I never saw it again.