Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Campaign Ad Analysis

Propaganda Techniques:
     1. Simple and short: Creating a short and simple allows the audience to easily understand the message you want them to remember. A candidate would not want to create an ad that's too long because the audience would get bored and pay less attention, and may not want to vote for him/her. This ad is only 30 seconds long and shows short, brief phrases that concern the audience, persuading them to vote for Obama in order to fix these problems.
     2. Use of music/catchy jingle: As this ad demonstrates, incorporating a rhythmic and repetitive message in an ad catches attention from the audience and simplifies complicated issues. Repetition and rhythm of a jingle or music also helps people remember things better, thus, I feel this ad was effective in using this technique.
     3. Positivity: In this ad, Obama shows how he's struggled in the past, but stayed positive regardless his let-downs. Showing this positivity is effective in relating to the people and how he will help them in the future as president. 
     4. Scare tactics: This tactic is often used against the candidate's opponent to prevent something from happening that may affect the people negatively. This ad "scares" people by saying Bush would significantly raise taxes, but I don't see this ad to be as effective as others may be.
     5.Humor/sarcasm: Kerry is criticized and made fun of, making him seem unfit to be president. Humor and sarcasm is often used to make the opposing candidate seem silly and unprofessional, obvious reasons the people do not seek in a president.
     6. Focus on families/children: Along with similar ads, this shows care and concern for children of future our generations. This brings sympathy because people always want the best for their children and family comes first. This technique is used effectively because it shows the care of Bush for his family and mentions the connections he has with other people; people want a president that will care for them and respond to issues that need to be solved.
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988/familychildren

Conclusions of the Study:
  1. Advertising does little to inform voters, only persuade.
  2. Treatment of individuals is exploited and used in campaigns that affect the people.
  3. More advertising will not produce a "better" result.

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