United Seats of America: a Democrat and a Republican share home-plate seats
Free seats behind home plate at Cardinals and Royals games, on one condition: sit next to someone from the other party. Thousands of Missourians signed up.
Free home-plate seats for two strangers, on one condition: sit next to someone from the other side.
- Client
- Jared Young for Senate
- Year
- 2024
- What we did
- Campaign, PR, Production
- Result
- Two games, two strangers each, one film
Parties win by convincing us the other side is the enemy. For Missouri's independent Senate candidate Jared Young, we gave away premium seats at Cardinals and Royals games to a Republican and a Democrat who'd never met, and filmed what happened.
An independent with a fraction of the money and one message
In 2024 Jared Young ran for the US Senate in Missouri as an independent, against Republican Josh Hawley and Democrat Lucas Kunce. By that summer Hawley had $5.8 million on hand and Kunce $4.2 million, while Young was largely funding his own run.
He couldn't win a TV war, so the campaign skipped it. Instead of paid ads, it launched a new earned-media project each month.
His message was simple: the parties win by making us fear the other side, and we have more in common than they want us to believe. It needed proof, not another speech.
Free home-plate seats, if you sit next to the other side
Don't say it, show it. We gave away premium seats at a St. Louis Cardinals game and a Kansas City Royals game, plus dinner. The catch: you had to sit next to a stranger whose politics were the opposite of yours.
The giveaway ran in social ads and on the campaign site as 'Free home plate Cardinals tickets.' To enter, people picked a team and placed their own views on a scale from very conservative to very progressive.
The campaign said thousands of Missourians signed up. It read that as proof of how many people want common ground.
Sign up
Pick your team and say where you stand, from very conservative to very progressive.
Sit together
Two strangers with opposite politics share home-plate seats for a whole game.
Film it
Cameras follow the evening, and each game becomes a short film.
Two lifelong opposites, three hours, one ballgame
At Busch Stadium, Julian, a lifelong Democrat, and John, a lifelong Republican, met for the first time and spent three hours together behind home plate. At Kauffman Stadium it was Luke, a lifelong Republican, and Kirby, a lifelong Democrat.
Over the game, political opposites became two people enjoying a ballgame, and found they had more in common than they expected. Jared Young joined the Cardinals pair in their seats.
We filmed both evenings and cut a short documentary for each game. The Cardinals film was finished in late August 2024 and the Royals film in September.
Two films, and a format the campaign pitched to influencers
The two films lived on the campaign site and social channels as the centerpiece of the project. The sign-up stayed open for more games.
The idea was built to travel. We turned it into a collaboration pitch for Missouri influencers: do the same thing with people from the other side over dinner, at karaoke, on a hike, or even skydiving.
We don't have view counts or press coverage for the films. What the project gave the campaign was real footage of the thing Jared was promising.
We have more in common than the parties want us to believe.
Gallery
In the news
10,696 signatures: Jared Young’s new Better Party makes Missouri’s ballot
Missouri certified a brand-new party for an independent Senate run. That week, Jared Young hired Buena to build the brand that would carry it to November.
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