EXCLUSIVE: ‘No’ campaign uses Subway Surfers, ‘Connie Baby’ and High School Musical to appeal to Gen Z voters – while ‘Yes’ struggles to catch up: ‘Stick with the status quo’

The No campaign has turned to memes and videos of players playing “Subway Surfers” from High School Musical to tackle their biggest problem – getting their message across to Generation Z.

According to recent Redbridge and Newspoll polls, Australians aged 18 to 34 are the only group that will consistently vote yes to Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

But Fair Australia, one of two groups behind the No campaign, has found its sweet spot with Gen Z on TikTok, with videos attracting a staggering 10 million views on the app popular among teens and young adults since August 27.

The No campaign is releasing up to five videos per day to reach the eight million Australians over 18 who use TikTok daily, with the 18-35 demographic making up 71 per cent of the app’s users worldwide.

“While they are [Yes] “When we create expensive ads with celebrities, we are speaking directly to voters where they are,” a senior No campaign source told Daily Mail Australia.

Fair Australia recently used a viral soundbite from “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” The iconic “Connie Baby” trend has attracted 86.8 million views worldwide on TikTok

Air Australia uses footage from High School Musical when the cast sings “Stick to the Status Quo” – particularly the repeated lines “No” in the song

Some of the campaign’s tactics would confuse older generations.

Several videos contain voiceovers discussing specific voice details, in addition to videos of people playing the video game Subway Surfers, a single-player mobile game that was recently adopted into TikTok.

It is now widely used on the platform along with unrelated voiceovers to get users to stop scrolling and watch the game’s outcome.

For the No campaign, the TikToks contain anti-voice messages.

Another popular TikTok from Fair Australia features a trending soundbite from the insanely popular streaming show The Summer I Turned Pretty, saying, “That’s 100 percent your look, Connie Baby.”

It shows Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and No activists at several recent events wearing campaign merchandise.

The hashtag #conniebaby on TikTok has racked up 86.8 million views worldwide after a scene from the Amazon Prime show went viral online.

Another video of Senator Price outlining her reasons for voting no was viewed 103,000 times in 24 hours.

In another clip, Fair Australia uses footage from “High School Musical,” which many Gen Z users grew up with and feel a sense of nostalgia for.

One TikTok features the song “Stick to the Status Quo,” where the chorus repeats the words “No, no, no” over and over again.

“This content will be seen primarily by younger Australians and hundreds of thousands of young women – a key target audience for the corporate-backed ‘Yes’ campaign,” a source within the campaign said.

“It’s clear the truth about how divisive the vote will be for our country resonates with young Australians.”

And it seems the Yes23 campaign has taken note of what works best for the No camp on the app and released its own version of the Subway Surfers videos.

The Subway Surfers video was published by Fair Australia on July 25th

Subway Surfers video released September 11th – Yes23

On Monday, Yes23 uploaded a video of Dean Parkin explaining how important voice is, paired with a video of a Subway Surfer game.

Yes23 has only posted 22 videos on TikTok compared to Fair Australia’s 152, attracting just 50,000 likes and 3,584 followers.

Fair Australia has 38,000 followers and 881,000 likes, with some individual videos reaching a million views.

But TikTok isn’t the only platform to reach voters

Older generations typically rely on Facebook and Twitter as news sources, and Yes23 has used these platforms far more than TikTok.

Yes23’s Facebook page has 62,000 followers and 49,000 likes, compared to Fair Australia’s 35,000 followers and 18,000 likes.

According to campaign statistics, these platforms for the yes camp reach millions of people every week.

In another clip, Fair Australia used footage from “High School Musical,” which many Gen Z users grew up with and feel a sense of nostalgia for

And the campaign’s efforts on more traditional media channels are increasingly spilling over into spaces like TikTok, where Yes Vote supporters are taking it upon themselves to create their own content.

A Yes23 spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that activists will try to reach voters “through various means until October 14.”

“We reach millions of Australians every week on social media platforms.” Locally, our 35,000 volunteers are out in large numbers every day, at train stations and shopping centers, knocking on doors and hosting community forums.

“For those who have not yet decided, we encourage people to find their local Yes group, get informed and be part of this unifying moment for Australians.”