Campaign Advertising

Campaign Advertising

Though clearly constant in the effort to win the electorate's vote for

each candidate, campaign advertising since the 1950's has become more

intricate. In each decade since television advertising for a candidate

has begun, the messages have been designed in one way or another to

play on the emotions of the electorate. However, over time the way in

which this is done has changed constantly, most clearly in the

utilization of "positive" and "negative" ads. Moreover, the

utilization of information and statistics in ads has changed

dramatically, delivering the core message of a candidate in concise,

hard hitting, and effective way.

Though positive and negative ads have been ever present in the

television campaigns between candidates, in essence only the negative

ad exists. Though positive ads often say little or nothing about a

candidate's opponent, their presentation of its candidate's attributes

or achievements discredit the opponent through the implication that he

is not as suited for office as the candidate being advertised and is

thus a negative ad. After President Richard Nixon's implication in the

Watergate scandal and his subsequent resignation, the American people

became increasingly distrustful of politicians. As a result, Jimmy

Carter's campaign against Gerald Ford in 1976 centered on the idea

that he was an outsider from the Washington D.C. political scene and

promoted his upstanding, moral character. Though a seemingly positive

ad, through inference one is presented with the idea that Ford is the

opposite; a distrustful politician. Several of the ads of the 1960's

and early 1970's evidence the sav...

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... has remained constant, the

methods used in realizing that aim have changed drastically.

Television advertising is a reflection of social mores and it plays on

whatever the current concerns of the customers are. To sell a product,

no one technique has ever been constant, if such were the case the

method would become stagnant and the product would not be bought.

Therefore, as society develops and changes, so too does the

advertising marketed to satisfy it. The development of campaign ads

has been no different. They have gone from utilizing cartoons and

campy humor, to playing on the electorate's greatest fears and

concerns. The only true constant in campaigns as in anything is

change, and as the electorate is fickle in its needs and wants, one

can be assured the advertising or campaign to reach them will change

too.