Political ads influence student vote in election
In 1952 Rosser Reeves, one of the country’s greatest advertisers, was approached by a group of businessmen to come up with a Republican slogan for the presidential campaign of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Instead of just a slogan, Reeves proposed an entire campaign for Eisenhower, who would address voters’ main concerns in a series of short television spots airing shortly before the election called “Eisenhower Answers America.”
A total of $2 million was spent on the country’s very first televised political ad campaign.
Since 1952, candidates have spent billions of dollars on campaign ads.
According to the Federal Election Commission, the financial activity of the 2004 presidential candidates and national conventions totaled more than $1 billion.
Individuals, parties and other groups spent $192.4 million independently advocating the election of the presidential candidates.
With so much time, money and effort going into these ads, voters may assume that candidates are certain to sway voters in their direction. But how effective are these ads?
According to a 1986 study by researchers Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, there are two different routes a political campaign ad can follow: the peripheral route and the central route.
An ad following the central route to persuasion would make strong and compelling arguments focusing on issues important to the American people. This type of ad was said to have a long lasting change on opinion.
The peripheral route to persuasion uses superficial cues to persuade its audience. For example, this type of ad relies heavily on the type of background music played, characters portrayed within the ad, setting and other theatrics to influence those watching.
The effects, however, are short term: it is likely that the individual’s mind will change with an alternative persuasive message.
Dr. Alicia Bembenek, assistant professor of psychology, named typical characteristics found in political advertisements based on a 1991 study published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
“Candidates try to focus on issues or image in their commercials. They can choose to make a support or an attack ad,” Bembenek said. “They can use music or not and typically choose to use a professional background and context or a family background.”
This study compared image ads and issue ads in political campaigns. Issue ads focus on current hot button issues with the American people and image ads centering on a candidate’s character or personality.
“They found that the issue commercials produced greater voting intent, more positive attitude towards the ads and the candidates, towards their abilities and character than the image ads,” Bembenek said.
The study also showed that support ads, advertisements that focus on the candidate and their personal goals, had a more positive impact on viewer attitudes as well as voting likelihood than did ads attacking fellow candidates. Attack ads merely conjured negative feelings in viewers toward both candidates.
Ads with a professional or office setting had a positive impact on viewer perceptions of the candidate’s abilities; while ads with a family setting boosted viewer attitudes about the candidate’s personal character.
“Unfortunately we don’t know much about how female candidates are perceived. The research is based on males so can any of this be applied to Hillary Clinton? I don’t know,” Bembenek said.
Bembenek says it is unclear whether or not the data collected applies to Barack Obama as well.
“The research is based on white men and how people perceive white men,” said Bembenek. “But it is possible that right now a lot of researchers are creating a methodology to really look at ethnicity and gender now that it is a topic, and we may see that research a couple of years from now when it is published.”
Senior English major Paul Grigsby said he has seen ads from Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, Ron Paul and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He thinks that they persuade some people.
“Some people give TV supreme authority over what they know,” Grigsby said.
Karla White, a junior economics and rhetoric major, said she has seen ads for John McCain, Romney and Clinton, but she doesn’t think they have much effect on viewers.
“I don’t think ads have as much power as people think,” White said. “If the ad solidifies what we already believe, we like it.”
Whether you believe in the effectiveness of political ads, Bembenek says studies found that the superficial cues and tactics do not typically sway viewers.
“They’ve found that people tend to be very thoughtful and take a very rational approach when watching advertisements of someone running for political office,” Bembenek said.
The following links are to Web sites containing political ads for each of these 2008 presidential candidates:
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 15 2008. Filed under News.
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