Political Advertising

1. Create a blog and respond to the ads you've watched above.  Is the Perry ad too dramatic or effective?  It's getting a lot of attention.  What do you discover about Michele Bachmann's roots?  Is it effective?  What does President Obama need to accomplish in his ads?  Overall, what was most effective?  What wasn't?

2. Social media groups are stepping into the political realm - advocating for both sides in the upcoming election.  What are your thoughts on these groups boosting their political profiles and some, like Twitter, even selling ad space?  Please include this in your blog entry.

3.  Do you agree that television advertising is the best approach to reach so-called "passive" voters?  How effective might social media outlets be in reaching a new voting group?  Please include your answers in your blog entry.

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The ads viewed as part of this module are fascinating because they all vary on how they approach the problems they propose to be the solution to all for the same outcome: votes. I follow the GOP very closely and have seen most of these ads (except "Obama's First Ad"). The Perry ad is fascinating to me as a marketing person. It has several elements that make it dramatic but here is the biggest takeaway from this video. Music and editing can make anything dramatic. Check these videos out. 

My point is that editing is quite a powerful tool to invoke emotion. Strip out the editing and music selection of Perry's add against Romney and you will see an ad that hits on the same points as many other GOP candidates. Perry's PR team just knew how to do it with maximum impact! I knew a lot about Bachmann before seeing this ad and I honestly do not believe it had a lot of impact because it talked more about her past than the present and future. To be successful in his ad campaigns, Obama is going to need to counter the resentment many Americans have towards the current administration and congress. Obama needs to be worried not about what the conservative base believes because in terms of votes, they are a lost cause for him. Obama needs to convince the moderates and independents that he has in fact brought about the change that he promised and that he only needs more time to realize those benefits. 

In regards to the second question about the involvement of social media platforms and financial impacts of those companies in politics, it makes perfect sense that the two would be so closely tied more in the present and future. Politics relies heavily on communication. Politics is communication. If politicians heavily involve themselves in social media, they now have direct access to dialogue with their constituents. Facebook and Twitter are very aware of this strong tie not only in terms of dialogue but they also know that the younger generations are increasingly present on social networks and consume a larger percentage of information from those networks every year. Politicians NEED to be heavily involved in social media. 

Anyone who says that television is how politicians can reach passive voters does not understand advertising in today's environment. I'm not saying that television isn't a way to reach passive voters but the premise of the statement was entirely wrong. It comes down to a generational segmenting of the voter base. I am personally very surprised that television advertising is still increasing because every other industry that invests in advertising has seen their traditional marketing channel budgets shrinking while investments in web based advertising have been skyrocketing. Will a TV ad for Obama or Perry reach a large percentage of passive voters over 60 years old? Definitely. Will that same TV ad reach a large percentage of passive voters under 40? Absolutely not. Now post that ad on Hulu and you'll see an entirely different scenario play out. 

I believe that social media channels are engaging an entirely new market of voters who are more informed involved than ever before. This is a welcome development today but it is also increasingly necessary to be able to filter out the political garbage from facts which is becoming increasingly difficult.