The solution
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori can enrol on the general roll or the Māori roll, and the number on the Māori roll sets the number of Māori seats in parliament — fixed at seven since 2002. Yet about 280,000 eligible Māori sat on the general roll and 120,000 were unenrolled. Whānau Ora needed to move them before the 2026 election, against deep mistrust of government messaging.
Motion Sickness created 'The Māori Roll Call': activist and artist Tāme Iti reads hundreds of real names, shared with consent by voters on the Māori roll, in stark black-and-white films staged on a Poutama-patterned set echoing parliament's press gallery. The centrepiece was New Zealand's longest-ever ad — 30 minutes and over 500 names.
The roll call continued in radio, regionally localized out-of-home, and influencer roll calls on social, all leading to a website where new enrollees could add their names live. In a country of two degrees of separation, every recognizable name made the movement personal and unignorable.
What it achieved
Read the real names of everyone who already answered
Why it worked
Real consented names turned an abstract roll into proof that 'people like me' had already acted.
The 30-minute format was itself news — NZ's longest ad earned coverage money couldn't buy.
It deliberately looked nothing like Electoral Commission communications, bypassing institutional mistrust.
Enrolment became participation: joining the roll meant your name joined the roll call.
What can be applied
Social proof beats explanation: in a two-degrees-of-separation society every familiar name was a personal invitation. The roll passed the threshold for an 8th Māori seat.
Aftermath
During June 16–July 31 the campaign reached 1.5 million people (an estimated 54.6% of the Māori population) with 6.6 million impressions and 23,613 engaged web sessions. The Māori roll passed the threshold for an 8th Māori seat — the first change in 23 years. It won the Spikes Asia 2026 Grand Prix for Good and Gold at ONE Asia 2025.
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