Good article on Salon about Rock The Vote and attempts to attract the 18-29 crowd - for subscribers only, sadly, but here's a key quote:
'In an experiment Green conducted with the Youth Vote Coalition, young people called other people ages 18 to 30 in four university towns in the days before the 2000 election, using an informal, chatty script to ask them to come out to the polls. Youth voter turnout in those towns went up 8 to 12 percent.
By contrast, online peer-to-peer "viral" methods like chatting or mass e-mails ... and "robo-calls" by celebrities had little to no effect on turnout in other campaigns Green and his colleagues studied.'
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/04/23/youth_voting/index.html
The basic message: Youth voters are cynical when it comes to advertising, celebrity endorsement, and marketing schemes in general. What seems to get young voters out voting, more than anything else, is other young people going to them and talking to them about it.
Note the recent polls indicating Kerry is slipping amongst young voters. If anyone can reverse this, it will probably be young Kerry supporters who volunteer, knock on doors, and generally go out and make the case for him. Take note.