Text 21 Political Television Advertisements

Nowadays, political advertising is everywhere. The amounts of money spent on political advertising are staggering: hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into what has become the main means of political communication. In the right hands televised political advertising can be an effective educational tool. Televised political ads are the efficient way to bring new political ideas to people who have not previously experienced them, to convey easily understood information to the broadest possible audience. In today's political campaigns (ex. election campaigns) media plays a larger role than ever before. People in today's society are becoming more and more apathetic about voting and increasingly disinterested in spending time researching the various candidates and their platforms.

The electronic media of today offers an unprecedented opportunity for political candidates to disseminate positive, accurate information about their platform policies. Unfortunately in today's society, this is the exception, not the rule.

Advertising agencies producing political commercials provide politicians with the opportunity to control the image seen on television fully and completely. Election campaign managers produce materials that journalists can easily use. Turning advertisements into news stories allows candidates to set the campaign agenda and magnifies the effects of the ads considerably.

A significant trend in today`s political advertising is the increasing use of negative political advertising. Sometimes candidates or parties use negative ads from the beginning of a political campaign. Allegations of dishonesty and incompetence lay the seeds of controversy and scandal. Thus for journalists, it is a no-lose situation when candidates attack one another as the fight itself often becomes the story.

Negative advertising encourage people to vote not for the best candidate based upon objective positive information, but for the least evil candidate. Commercials are astronomically costly and the wealthiest candidate who slings the most mud at other candidates has a greater chance of being elected by "reaching" the voter population through these "marketing messages".

Negative campaigning may keep people away from the polls. It may discourage supporters of the candidate who is attacked. At the same time candidates unintentionally depress turnout among their own supporters by using negative advertising. Generally candidates attack to expand the scope of the political conflict, to drag organized interests and the media into the fray. The more intense the conflict, the more people are drawn to it. The more a candidate attacks, the more he or she makes news.

Voters are often most receptive to attack advertisements when the candidate who is attacked responds with self-promotional advertisements rather than a counterattack. Even candidates who would in principle like to run wholly positive campaigns are led to attack to protect themselves from the assault of the opposition.

Questions:

1. Do politicians use media for their campaigns?

2. What are the televised political ads used for?

3. What does the electronic media of today offers for political candidates?

4. What opportunities do the advertising agencies provide politicians with?

5. Are journalists against the situation when candidates attack one another?

6. What is the outcome of negative advertising?

7. How can negative campaigning keep people away from the polls?

8. What is the aim of attacking each other during the election campaign?

9. Is it possible to run positive campaigns and not get mixed up in negative campaigning?

10. When are voters most receptive to attack advertisements?