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Last month, more than 450 artists designed a custom sticker to support Zohran Mamdanis New York City mayoral campaignand, pretty soon, youre going to be seeing the winning design everywhere. On September 25, Mamdanis campaign announced through an Instagram video that it would be hosting a sticker design contest to get New Yorkers registered to vote before the October 25 deadline. The competition gave followers just 36 hours to submit their designs, during which hundreds of pieces of art flooded the campaigns submission portal. Now that a winner has been selected, anyone who is registered can submit a form on Mamdanis website and pick up the sticker at one of Mamdanis canvases or volunteer events. Mamdanis campaign took a page out of other regions playbooks through the sticker design contest, which, in recent years, have proven to be both effective fodder for social media discussion and a real avenue to boost voter engagement. Its part of his larger goal to get more New Yorkers, and especially young people, registered to votea mission that, so far, has yielded impressive results. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani) Why voting sticker contests are on the rise Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has run his campaign with an internet-savvy eye for design. In the election run-up, he masterfully shot candid short-form video content to reach young voters and establish himself as an authentic candidate for the people. His campaign posters balanced a hand-drawn quality with a healthy sprinkling of nostalgia, presenting Mamdani as less corporate and more down-to-earth than his rivals. These aesthetic choices helped pave the way for him to defeat Andrew Cuomo in the primaries. Now that the November 6 election is fast approaching, Mamdanis campaign is using those same creative sensibilities to prepare New Yorkers for the polls. Most Americans will be familiar with the classic red-white-and-blue I Voted stickers, and for good reason. According to a 2016 study by four researchers at Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Chicago, were more motivated to vote when we know others will know that we voted. These now-ubiquitous stickers are a key way to signal our civic involvement. Recently, though, another kind of voting sticker has taken center-stage. In 2022, Ulster County in New York decided to forgo the traditional sticker, opting instead to solicit sticker designs from local artists. The public overwhelmingly voted for a crazed-looking monster spider, designed by a 14-year-old, which became an immediate viral sensation. Since then, other local governments have similarly turned sticker design into a contest, from Denver to South Dakota and San Luis Obispo County, California. Last May, Michigan residents selected a image of a werewolf ripping off its shirt in front of an American flag to represent that theyd performed their civic duty. Submissions to Mamdanis call for designs included a giant pigeon head, a psychedelic interpretation of Mamdanis face, and a swaggering NYC alley cat. Mamdani himself chose his 10 favorite designs before allowing the public to vote on the winner. Nearly 7,000 votes later, the winner, created by local artist Nishan Patel, was chosen. Fittingly, the design features an NYC bodega with a cat in the window and the signage, Vote for Zohran. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani) How Mamdani is boosting voter turnout Historically, sticker design competitions have been used to boost final voter turnout on election day. Instead, Mamdanis campaign opted to catch potential supporters sooner by using the contest to encourage New Yorkers to register to votea goal thats been central to the campaigns success so far. According to an analysis from The New York Times, published on June 29, Mamdani has already changed the electoral map. In the 14 days leading up to the registration deadline for the Democratic primary, about 37,000 people registered to vote, compared with about 3,000 people in the same period in 2021, the publication found. Mr. Mamdanis campaign had focused on registering voters, and he also appears to have drawn thousands of voters to the primary who did not vote four years ago, the report reads. Mamdanis campaign told Fast Company that it even believes certain social media videos may have driven spikes in voter registrations. After Mamdani posted a call-to-action in mid-June specifically encouraging New Yorkers to register, registrations shot up. While such data is correlational and not necessarily causal, the campaign says that the narrow timeframe suggests a likely connection. As Vote for Zohran stickers begin to appear around the city, the design competition may prove to be another way that Mamdani convinces New Yorkers to get to the polls.
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E-Commerce
Wall Street nudged past yesterday’s record highs in early trading Friday as investors continue to shrug off the U.S. government shutdown, now in its third day.Futures for S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all added 0.2% before the bell. All three closed at record levels on Thursday, boosted by gains of chipmakers and artificial intelligence companies.Markets have largely ignored the shutdown of the U.S. government after Democrat and Republican lawmakers failed to reach agreement on funding.U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders were not expected to meet again soon and the Democrats have held fast to their demands to preserve health care funding, warning of price spikes for millions of Americans nationwide.The government shutdown means this week’s usual report on jobless claims was delayed. An even more consequential report, the monthly tally of jobs gains and losses that usually comes out the first Friday of every month, will also not arrive as scheduled.That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession.So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past the delays of such data. Shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.Excitement around AI and the massive spending underway because of it are a major reason the U.S. stock market has hit record after record, along with hopes for easier interest rates. But AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX ticked down 0.2% and the CAC 40 in Paris fell back 0.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6%.In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed nearly 1.9% higher at 45,769.50 as tech stocks gained despite data showing Japan’s unemployment rate rose 2.6% in August, the highest in 13 months and above the expected 2.4%.Shares in Hitachi jumped 10.3% after it signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI to provide cooling systems for its data centers.Stock exchanges in China and South Korea were closed Friday for holidays.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng won back some earlier losses, ending 0.5% down to 27,140.92 as traders sold to lock in profits from Thursday’s gains.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.5% to 8,987.40. India’s BSE Sensex rose less than 0.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex edged 0.9% higher.In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude added 17 cents to $60.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 21 cents to $64.32 per barrel. Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said Friday that unpredictable change is inevitable and central banks need to be aware of that and have strategies to operate in those environments. Williams’ comments, which came in prepared remarks for an event in Amsterdam, did not address the outlook for U.S. monetary policy. Williams serves as vice chair of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, which cut interest rates last month as officials sought to offset rising risks to the job market. Unpredictable change and uncertainty will certainly continue to be with us for the foreseeable future, Williams said, flagging issues like the effects of ongoing global demographic shifts, artificial intelligence, and potentially transformative innovations in our financial systems. Williams said dealing with uncertainty means that central banks need robust principles and strategies in place that can deal with a range of contingencies, while noting there will still be novel situations to deal with. Williams also said that formerly unconventional strategies like bond buying are no longer novel and are a normal part of the toolkit. Williams said anchoring inflation expectations is critical and cannot be taken for granted. Michael S. Derby, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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