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"Surprise! Each candidate wants your vote this election! Wait--what? You&amp;#x27;re not surprised? Oh, well, then. Never mind that. Unsurprisingly, with fewer than 50 days until Election 2012, both the Romney and Obama campaigns have released new media efforts aimed at young women to try to snag their votes. Let&amp;#x27;s take a look at both and see how each makes you react and--most importantly--if they&amp;#x27;ll influence how youact with your vote.Yesterday, Mitt Romney&amp;#x27;s campaign released a new television ad, &amp;quot;Dear Daughter.&amp;quot; Dear daughter. Welcome to America. Your share of Obama&amp;#x27;s debt is over 50,000 dollars. And it grows every day. Obama&amp;#x27;s policies are making it harder on women. The poverty rate for women--the highest in 17 years. More women are unemployed under President Obama. More than 5.5 million women can&amp;#x27;t find work. That&amp;amp;#8217;s what Obama&amp;#x27;s policies have done for women. A New York Times poll from this weekend puts Romney at a 53 to 41 percent disadvantage with women voters, so the Romney campaign is right to turn their attention to bringing ladies back over to their side. So, is a traditional television ad with a negative spin the right approach? Let&amp;#x27;s chat. As a woman, how do you react when you see these stats and this motherhood-centric imagery? Are you called back to Ann Romney&amp;#x27;s speech at the convention where she talked so much about being a mother? Do you worry about President Obama&amp;#x27;s current policies, and are you influenced by negative ads more than you might admit? (Studies indicate you might be!) Taking a totally different approach, today, President Obama&amp;#x27;s campaign announced the launch of the &amp;quot;For All&amp;quot; initiative, which specifically targets voters aged 18 to 29 (whom Obama already has a lead with in that same Times poll 53 to 45 percent, by the way). Users post a picture on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram that &amp;quot;that highlights why we are greater together regardless of race, background, sexual orientation or zip code,&amp;quot; and all the photos will come together at the campaign&amp;#x27;s Instagram account. From Obama for America: &amp;quot;For All&amp;quot; illustrates the shared values of the President and young Americans across the country: that if we work together, we can continue to move this country forward. Working together, we can continue to restore the strongest middle class the world has ever known - the promise that hard work will pay off, responsibility will be rewarded, and that everyone gets a fair shot, does their fair share and plays by the same rules. Unlike Romney&amp;#x27;s TV ad, Obama&amp;#x27;s new effort depends on user engagement, which makes it easier to ignore, but potentially more empowering and resonant if voters actually take part. (And yes, let&amp;#x27;s even the playing field: the Obama team did release a negatively-slanted web video as a response to Romney&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;47 percent&amp;quot; comments.) Obama&amp;#x27;s approach is totally different--do you think it shows that the President is more in tune with younger voters and how they interact, or does the undertaking feel too exclusionary or contrived? Would you ever take part in something like this? Although this won&amp;#x27;t be the first presidential race in which I&amp;#x27;ve voted, I&amp;#x27;m wowed every day by just how substantially different this race feels and, most importantly, looks. As a resident of a state that will presumably go blue for Obama, I&amp;#x27;m not having the experience of a swing state voter who&amp;#x27;s being bombarded by the media. I seek out a lot of my experience as a journalist covering the election. I&amp;#x27;d love to hear what you&amp;#x27;re seeing and feeling that I&amp;#x27;m not, however, and how initiatives like these from Romney and Obama resonate with you as a result. P.S. The Voter Network: Facebook&amp;#x27;s Effect on Voter Turnout, and Where YOU Can Register to Vote"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2012/09/romney-and-obama-both-release>