Two MU students created a fake fourth slate for the Missouri Students Association presidential election last week with an ambitious campaign mission, “Doin’ it for the lolz.”

MSA Student Affairs Chairman Tyler Ricketts and Residence Hall Association Speaker of Congress Kathy Rudd are behind the campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of the MSA elections.

Rudd said the idea came about because Ricketts had been approached multiple times by people who asked if he would run for MSA president. Ricketts said he denied all talk that he would have a slate.

“It’s been an ongoing joke with our friends that Tyler should run anyway,” Rudd said. “We had been thinking about the ability of that to be funny, and it snowballed into actually wanting to do it.”

Ricketts said once they decided they would create a campaign, they had to decide what they wanted it to look like and what the purpose would be.

“It’s The Onion slate, the Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert slate, where we try and use humor to promote the general election,” Ricketts said.

Ricketts said the idea is that students will see their slate and think it is ridiculous, and then they will go and look further at the other slates. He also said they will not be endorsing any candidates and the slate is completely unbiased. The only purpose is to raise awareness.

“We think this could improve voter turnout,” Ricketts said.

MSA President Eric Woods said historically, MSA elections have had a low turnout.

“Last year when I was elected, about 4,000 people voted,” Woods said. “With about 26,000 undergraduates on campus, that is not a good percentage.”

Woods said he finds the campaign fun, and that Ricketts and Rudd are humorous and get attention.

“I think it’s a good kind of strategy to raise awareness,” Woods said. “They say ‘Don’t waste your vote.’”

Rudd said “Don’t waste your vote” is one of two campaign slogans, along with “Doin’ it for the lolz,” which they felt encompassed the general idea of their slate.

Ricketts said once they decided to create the fake slate, they decided they needed everything a real one had, including campaign photos, a website and Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“We’re going to mostly use social media to promote it,” Rudd said. “We don’t want to make financial contributions to a fake campaign.”

Ricketts said word-of-mouth would also be a big part of spreading the message.

“We announced it to the MSA senators, and we’re hoping they take it and run with it,” Rudd said.

On Ricketts and Rudd’s website they provide a fake platform alongside a real mission statement and links to the websites of the actual slates.

“We got permission from all three slates to link to their pages,” Ricketts said. “They think it’s hilarious.”

He said they want to tweet as if to make people think they are a real slate, hoping they will then explore further and learn about the other slates.

“Some people don’t get that it’s a joke,” Rudd said.