Television campaign advertising is the most visible signpost that most people have to guide them through an election year. We are bombarded with short ads that extol the virtues, or drawbacks, of each candidate; but what are they really saying? What are they designed to say? Drawing upon visual rhetoric techniques pioneered by Roland Barthes and furthered by Ann Tyler, we’re going to find out that these ads rarely give us the truth about candidates. Specifically, a recent ad by the Scott Brown campaign showing us how special his pickup truck is; and an opposing ad from Martha Coakley that makes Brown out to be a rape-loving fascist.
Truth, however, is a dangerous word and a relative concept, especially in politics. Burroughs said that “Nothing is true”, and I’m inclined to agree. We could peel back the layers of truth like an onion for 1000 pages, but let’s not try to deconstruct the universe here. In this essay, “truth” will refer to the actions of the candidates versus what these ads are trying to make us believe about them. Does the “truth” of how they conduct their business as politicians match up with the “truth” of the advertising narrative? In fact, I will argue that these two ideas are so far apart that they render the ads irrelevant to what we assume their purpose is; informing us of our best choice based upon a candidate’s morals and by extension their platform. This is, in fact, not the purpose of these ads at all. Their purpose is to swindle you and manipulate your emotions. To create their own truth which will hopefully spread like wildfire and become the majority Truth .
In his groundbreaking (and tongue twisting) “Rhetoric of the Image” Roland Barthes introduces two powerful ideas while examining...
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...ed with connoted imagery that it has taken me six pages to examine one combined minute of footage. To ascertain any amount of truth from these ads, we need examine them claim by claim against what we know of the candidate’s personal and professional lives, thereby rendering the ads useless in the first place. In the end, all we’re doing is trying to parse out the false narrative of a secondary source instead of going directly to the primary sources themselves. Is this how you want to go about the business of choosing who will make important decisions about your life and the state of your country? Next time the candidate that you voted for does something that goes against their advertised principals, don’t be mad at them; be mad at yourself if you voted based on a commercial. After all, truth in advertising law only applies to the goods you buy, not the people.
Appealing to an audience’s ethos consists of convincing an audience that someone has moral character and are credible enough to be knowledgeable on what they are speaking on. Bernie is able to play up his ethos through the use of multiple rhetorical strategies, including narrative structure and plain folks. Directly from the start of this political ad Bernie incorporates narrative structure to list all of his qualifications that would make him an effective leader for the United States. The ad informs the audience on how “he moved to Vermont; won the election and praise as one of America’s best mayors” in 1987, decided by U.S. News (Bernie Sanders). The ad tells a chronological story of the highlights in Bernie Sander’s career. This list of accomplishments impresses his audience while also demonstrating that Bernie has the political expertise to be a successful president while also fighting for the people. In the narrative structure of the ad, Bernie’s time spent fighting for racial and social justice is a major topic where emphasis is placed. Knowing Bernie’s audience is inclusive of racial and ethnic minorities, these examples of Bernie’s fighting against injustice will give him mass amounts of credibility with his audience. Another rhetorical strategy used to appeal to the audience’s ethos is plain folks. The ad specifically states that Bernie went to public school, this is for the sole purpose of relating Bernie Sanders to the average American, he could not afford expensive private schools, contrary to other candidates. They also show clips of Bernie talking to multiple working class citizens and mention how he is a husband, father, and grandfather. These clips prove that Bernie is a working class man with a family to take care of, the same situation millions of Americans are in. An audience is readily able
Often Advertising uses persuasion to inform the audience; in fact it is the most import aspect to advertising. Advertising would simply be a conversation between the communicator and their recipients if persuasion weren’t present. Although the basic purposes are to inform and persuade, it is left to the audience when it comes to differentiating between factual information and unethical persuasive tactics. The persuader, wishes for the consumer to act or believe in a certain way. Whether sought after actions are positive or negative, ends up being the question. In the modern world it has become more difficult to differentiate between truths and untruths; mainly due to the technological advances in advertising medium. Differentiating between facts and propaganda becomes increasingly more challenging when it comes to politics. Whether it is an election for student senate or the United States general election for Presidency; there are a lot of factors weighing in on the decision process. During an election year, persuasive tactics become essential in the success of a campaign. Although many voters have made up their minds when they are first bombarded by the political campaigning, these pre-developed opinions are not viewed as an impenetrable force by the campaigner. The campaigner typically recognizes these patterns in opinion and instead aims to persuade them from a different angle, most commonly the emotions surrounding the issues rather than the issues themselves. This paradigm changed in political persuasion was first seen September 7, 1964 when a rattling ad for Lynden Johnson played over NBC. The ad now known as “Daisy Girl” forever changed political persuasion in advertising. With this change came the issue of ethi...
It is very common among the United States’ political sphere to rely heavily on T.V. commercials during election season; this is after all the most effective way to spread a message to millions of voters in order to gain their support. The presidential election of 2008 was not the exception; candidates and interest groups spent 2.6 billion dollars on advertising that year from which 2 billion were used exclusively for broadcast television (Seelye 2008.) Although the effectiveness of these advertisements is relatively small compared to the money spent on them (Liasson 2012), it is important for American voters to think critically about the information and arguments presented by these ads. An analysis of the rhetoric in four of the political campaign commercials of the 2008 presidential election reveals the different informal fallacies utilized to gain support for one of the candidates or misguide the public about the opposing candidate.
Media concentration allows news reporters to fall victim to source bias, commercial impulse, and pack journalism. Together, all three of the aforementioned factors become known as horse race journalism, a cause for great concern in campaign media. In complying with horse race journalism, media outlets exclude third party candidates, reinforce the idea that politics is merely a game, and dismiss issues that directly affect voters and their day to day lives. Through horse race journalism, the media is mobilized in impeding an active form of the democratic debate in American politics. Even across the wide range of human values and beliefs, it is easy to see that campaign media coverage must be changed, if not for us, then for our children. It is imperative that we discern the flaws of the media and follow our civic duty to demand better media
Political discourse has suffered because of this change. We no longer focus on the issues in politics but rather the relatability of a politician or on certain aspects of their personal lives. Even though the internet has subsumed television in today’s society there are still instances where we see this in both mediums. On the television politicians are still using their personal appeal to persuade their audience and on the internet the lives of these political figures are readily available, also influencing our choices. A possible course of action to navigating this world of false advertisement and excessive insight would be to educate people of these unconscious influences on their decision making and reinforce that it is the quality of one’s beliefs that should matter upmost and foremost. In the end, it would be entirely up to the people to decide how easily subjective they will
“The Candidate” is a prime example to the inside of a campaign and the inside of an election. Elections do not only include the candidate themselves but the campaign manager, the supporters, the nominee’s family and the media crew. During “The Candidate” democratic nominee John McKay uses many strategies in order to “not” win his election for senator of California. Going into this campaign McKay was in hopes that he would not win the election, as time passed his view of the election changed as did his strategies.
Lynda Lee Kaid offers insight into political advertising across North America, as well as other nations around the world in her article Political Advertising as Political Marketing: A Retro-forward Perspective. Noting that political advertising is crucial in democracies today, Kaid outlines several aspects of political advertising. Although Kaid offers a multitude of claims regarding political advertising, she fails narrow in on a specific method, as well as neglects to provide statistics of why particular methods are effective. Due to extensive examples and lack of statistics Kaid's argument is weak.
Campaigns are a significant part of the democratic process in American politics. Individuals who make decisions individually and interdependently characterize the democratic process. It aids decision making for the citizens and enables them come up with a summary political judgment based on how they view the different candidates. Campaigns are the primary strategy used by candidates and parties to make political communication to the citizens. US political campaigns are informative and provide a chance for candidates to notify their electorate about their ideologies and policies. Through political campaigns, the citizens are able to assess the policies that the...
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Texture’s advertisement effectively appeals to emotion. For instance, the headline asserts “Truth will make America great again.” The publishing of the advertisement in the democratic institution TIME shows that its intended audience are democrats. Recommending truth as a way to “Make America Great Again” stimulates democratic vigor as the statement tacitly shows disapproval towards Republican President Trump’s current methods. Furthermore, the advertisement features a collage of magazine covers on iPads and iPhones placed in the
We live in the age of consumerism; we are constantly surrounded by advertisements in our everyday environments. Through television, print, billboards, radio, the Internet and countless other mediums, it seems as though we cannot escape ads. We have become so accustomed to advertisements that most of the time we are unaware of the impact they can have on us. To help us become more aware of the effects of advertisements and consumerism, activist groups like Adbusters has helped bring more attention and awareness to how information and meaning gets generated and transmitted in our society today.
The main focus of the advertisement was the text. The text was very easy to notice with a background that appeared to be a hand-painted city of many colors. The city seemed to be something much like what one would see on a cartoon. In large, white print painted over the colorful city were the words A Voice for Working Families. By using this text the Democratic party was using honorific language (pathos). The colorful background could be interpreted as pathos by appealing to the audience visually. The text was being used as a tool to relate and speak to primarily middle Americans also known as the blue collars of society. With this text Al Gore was saying without speaking, he could relate on their level and he was willing to be their voice in government. Al Gore was using positive text by letting the Americans in the middle class know that he was taking their concerns seriously.
The advocacy explosion is strongly linked to the decline of the American political party and the role of the political parties in elections. As interest groups have gained more power and had a larger control over politics and political goods the power that is exerted by political parties has dwindled. The power of the interest group has grown larger with the amount of members and the financial rewards that have come with the new members. In elections interest groups do not usually participate directly with the candidate or the election. Berry points out that “Groups often try to leverage their endorsement to obtain support for one of their priorities” (Berry, 53). With interest groups spreading their resources around the actual election can be affected very minimally by the many interest groups that contribute money to the election. However, the candidates who obtain political office through the help of special interest money still owe some sort of loyalty to the interest group regardless of which party wins the election. This loyalty and the promise of more money in the future gives the elected of...
The use of technology and advertisement has been a great innovative advance in how the market place operates and how it reaches a desired audience of consumers. According to a study done by Digital Strategy Consulting, it has been proven that 80% of people who have ever viewed an advertisement have at least looked into greater detail about the product. The purpose of advertisement is to promote a product or public notice to make consumers aware of whatever they might be advertising. One of the most popular forms of advertising is government advertising. The question is raised of how is the government and advertisement so successful? Now put together those two very powerful forms of persuasion and it is practically impossible to overcome. Advertisers are aware of what sets our brain off, our subconscious mind, they are able to manipulate and have control over what we take in based off of the advertisement. Humans have no way of knowing what she/he is really looking at, these advertisements that people are constantly bombarded with are controlling their minds without them even knowing. Although advertisement can be used to make a public notice aware to people it is critical that people are aware of subliminal advertisement by not only the produce but the government as well and how because of this, could possibly lead to the government having total control over our minds.
Television advertisement takes an important part of everyday human's life. Everyday millions of people in America and the world watches Television and advertisements. Television advertisements are very common these days. They appear in public where a lot of people can hear and watch. For example, commercials tend to appear on the radio, foot ball game where a lot of people are watching, and in on television. Advertisement is seen many times especially on television. Television is the most efficient way for business industries to use to take advantage of showing advertisement.