Political advertising

Political advertising

• “Televised political advertising is now the dominant form of communication between candidates and voters in the presidential elections and in most statewide contests”

• Kaid, “Political advertising”

– Online sources are becoming more important, but TV advertising remains dominant

• “Political candidates are products, and political advertising is advertising.”

• Elissa Moses, chief analytics officer for EmSense

• "Since you're the ones who are selling the soap, I thought you'd like to see the bar,"  – Ronald Reagan, upon sticking his head into the

room where the ad execs were creating the ad known as Morning In America

• The application of marketing principles to political campaigns is clearly reflected in the nature and volume of political advertising.

• Traditional product marketing principles and techniques have been adapted to use in political marketing– Political marketing more negative, combative,

dishonest, though

The cost of campaigning

• Political strategists have found that for very public races the most effective means of promoting their candidate is televised advertising– Efficient means of reaching widespread

audience– Can be effective in education, image-building,

emotional bonding, persuasion

As a result, the amount of campaign spending has

mushroomed

Aggregate Operating Expenditures US House Principal Campaign Committees 1998-2008

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 20080

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

$Millions

$Millions

Source: GAO

Ad targeting

• Campaigns target ads based on likelihood of increase in votes/margin– Get supporters to the polls– Influence undecided voters– In presidential, must consider electoral college

• http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/advertising/index.html?hp

Undecideds

• The ‘swing vote’ in elections is made up largely of those persons who are relatively ill-informed, have a less-developed ideology and are swayed by late events, advertising and non-policy news

• They often decide the elections, though, and are a major target of candidates– Going negative can work here

The danger of expense

• Politics could become a ‘rich man’s game’– Can well-heeled candidates buy elections?

• Those who cannot afford to run must raise the money– Do large donors gain inordinate influence?– Do candidates prostitute themselves?– Does fund-raising undermine the ability of

candidates to speak to the wider public?

Campaign strategy development

• Research– Polling– Opposition research

• Image (Brand) strategy development• Campaign development

– Message strategy– Media strategy/targeting

• Monitoring and adjustment

Elements of Campaign Strategy

• Targeting– Media strategy

• Branding (Image)– Message strategy

Targeting

• “If you want to get up to 51 percent of the vote, you probably have to assemble a coalition of 20 or 30 or 50 demographic groups. So as a modern candidate, you want a targeted ad on the gun control, on the pro-life, on the military, on the economic issues.”

• Peter Swire, Ohio State Law Professor, on PBS Frontline, The Persuaders

• “You're going to want to have a message that's tailored for each one of those groups. If you don't do it, you're putting out broadcast ads in a narrowcast world.”

Message strategy

Research: Frank Luntz:

• “The way you communicate an idea is different than the way you communicate a product. However, the way you measure [the response of the public in both instances] is quite similar.”– PBS Frontline: The Persuaders

• “My job as a pollster is to understand what really matters. . . . . What causes people to buy a product? What causes someone to pull a lever and get them to vote? I need to know the specifics of that. And in politics, more often than not, it's about the personality and the character of the individual rather than where they stand”

Incumbent strategiesBush Kerry

Use of symbolic trappings 15% 0%

Presidency stands for legitimacy 12% 0%

Competency and the office 25% 5%

Charisma and the office 5% 0%

Emphasizing accomplishments 25% 12%

Above-the-trenches posture 7% 0%

Depending on surrogates to speak 5% 8%

Challenger strategies

Bush Kerry

Calling for changes 3% 59%

Speaking to traditional values 31% 13%

Taking the offensive position 19% 16%

Emphasizing optimism 31% 28%

Attacking the record of the opponent 61% 54%

Simplification

• To be able to communicate a single idea, whether it be a policy position, personality trait, or critique of opponent performance, the candidate’s views are oversimplified– Remove nuance, detail and exceptions

• "We're in a sound-bite world, and you have to work to get people's attention.”– Scott Howell, quoted in The Nation

Implications of simplification

• Some scholars point to clear evidence that constituents do learn from political advertising—many studies indicating that they learn more from ads than from news coverage

• Others argue that simplification leads to sloganeering, demagoguery, and unrealistic expectations among the electorate.

Image

• Tie values, mythic qualities, trappings of the office, cheering crowds, perceptions of success, biography (with military service or business success), personality

Issues v. images• Most advertising focuses on issues rather than

image– 78% of 2000 presidential campaign ads (historic high)

• However, “the percentage of spots with specific policy issue information was much lower than the overall number of issue spots”– Vague, general statements– Claims without context (often misleading or even false)

Issues

Proportion of ads emphasizing issues

Fear appeals

Bush 85% 19%

Kerry 79% 5%

2004 Issue Mentions (source: Kaid)

2004 Candidate character mentions (source: Kaid)

Emotion

• Political consultants and many, perhaps most, scholars have argued that emotional appeals are the most effective—much more so than communication of issue positions

Emotional appeals

• Topical– Kids, elderly– Wedge issues– Patriotic, mythic appeals– Biography– Testimonial– Humor– Fear

Appeals in presidential campaign advertising

Verbal content 2004

Positive v. Negative• Challengers are more likely to engage in negative

advertising, while incumbents tend to be positive– Challenger criticizing record, incumbent defending it

• Attack ads are more common in competitive races – Most races against incumbents are long shots– 2010 seems to be breaking this rule

• Negative ads are more likely to be sponsored by parties or advocacy groups

• Negative ads have more substantive issue information

• There has been a significant increase in negativity over the last 30 years

Ed Rollins

• “Here’s the ugly truth they never teach you in civics class: Negative ads work. It’s easier to defeat your opponent than to get elected yourself. Not all that long ago campaigns were issue-driven. Now they’re character-driven. Party labels are essentially meaningless. Issues don’t matter as much as the message, and the message doesn’t count anywhere near as much as the messenger.

• So the campaign trains its sights on the messenger. You go out and tarnish their personality; you run ads that beat the living daylights out of them.” – Ed Rollins (Republican campaign consultant)

Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, 1996.

2000 [all] elections(Wisconsin Ad Project)

Overall appeals

Attack ads 2004 (source: Kaid)

Personally attack opponent

Anonymous attack on opponent

Attack on issues

Bush 0% 95% 92%

Kerry 30% 62% 59%

Emotion and cultural symbols• “more emotional proof than logical or ethical

proof”• According to Hart “one must never underestimate

the importance of that which advertising most reliably delivers—political emotion”

• Tie opponent to people or policies that are disliked, accuse of dishonesty/illegal activities, show lack of caring, that opponent is from ‘elsewhere’– Negative or “attack” ads

Framing

• Providing a particular vision of the world and placing the narrative within it– Good guys and bad guys/good v. evil– Presumptions about what is important and what

isn’t– Labeling, word use and exemplars– Ignoring of counter-evidence, factors that don’t

fit the ideology– Heavy use of metaphor

Truth and falsehood

• Unfounded and misleading projections from opponent’s statements, arguments

• Misrepresentation of own record, accomplishments

• "Advertising is essentially truthful, except political advertising, which ... gets worse every year ... (It's) just the artful assembling of nominal facts into hideous, outrageous lies."  

• (Bob Garfield, AdAge columnist, quoted in PBS' THE PERSUADERS)

• "The unfortunate thing about political advertising, is that when you tell lies, these lies often stick, and the liars never receive any penalties.”

• Dr. Carolyn Lin, a communications professor at the University of Connecticut.,

• Snippets of formally true information can be strung together to create a completely false impression

• Out-and-out lying is not uncommon in political ads even though it is illegal in product advertising

• "Political commercials pretend to be like documentaries, but they use all the techniques of fiction filmmaking, including scripts, performances, and music," – David Schwartz, American Museum of the

Moving Image

• Production – Music– Visuals (faces, emotional expressions)– Voiceover– Use of color v. B&W– Slow motion, fast motion

Production techniquesBush Kerry

Computer graphics 92% 80%

Slow motion 24% 41%

Fast motion 15% 1%

Freeze frames 14% 14%

Split screens 17% 26%

Superimpositions 20% 13%

Use of stills 7% 30%

Black and white changes

26% 16%

Types of commercials

• Talking heads• Cinema verite• Documentary spots• Man-in-the street spots• Testimonials

– Devlin; Joslyn: “Benevolent leader” spots