Before the presidential election, the Obama campaign wasn't shy about the fact that it was cozying up to Hollywood to rally support. But now, the administration has revealed just how much it worked with industry insiders to help re-elect the president, and it turns out that they had a significant and strategic involvement.
In a piece this week, the Hollywood Reporter discloses that Obama's official relationship with Hollywood executives began during a meeting in Beverly Hills last year between the incumbent and "top-level agents and producers":
The plan that emerged from that meeting, [Eric] Ortner says, was very scientific: "The idea was to mobilize constituency groups to build a ground game. It was very strategic."
From there, celebrities including Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry and John Legend hit the ground running. They headlined concerts and made appearances in swing states, during which campaign workers would gather the contact information of attendees, whom they would later hit up directly with pleas to vote for Obama.
Their effort proved successful:
In the Vegas neighborhood where Perry performed for more than 13,000 people, area residents "rushed" their polling places on Election Day, according to local media accounts.
The actors and musicians involved with the effort also used social media to promote the president's campaign messages, with 90 million fans ultimately reached.
