College Essay on Persuasive Political
Advertising
Marketers and the corporate world but also by politicians have not only used the
persuasiveness of advertisements during their campaigns positively affecting the
voter turnout in their favor. Politicians use news media sources as well as
public opinion polling to shape their campaigns persuasiveness. One example of
persuasive advertisement in politics is to ignore many members of the public.
This leads to a focus on selected few who are major parts as well as the most
influential creating an outcry so loud as to reach to the maximum number of
people. Politicians and other interest groups target individuals through
direct-broadcast satellites, direct mail, and downsizing their appearances in
television programs.
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Voter turnout depends on the personality and agenda of the candidates and how
would they come to know of the agendas and the personalities. This is where
advertising comes in. Through this the candidates persuade, convince and make
people aware of the future inspirations of the candidates. Lets not talk about
TV and personal appearances, even there is a high degree of political
activism/voter turnout in the online population of Web. Statistics indicate 65%
of Web users vote, versus under 50% of the U.S. population, and stats that
indicate that 95% of PC users vote versus 65% of the U.S. population.
But there is a major drop out in the proportion of the population casting a vote
and has elicited concerns from pundits, reporters, and scholars. It has been
believed by majority that a vote makes a difference in the eventual outcome of a
race, a drop in the public's sense that balloting is a civic obligation, and a
decline in the view that voting, regardless of effect on outcome, is a valued
form of ideological expression. The willingness of the voters to vote and select
a candidate has been tarnished by the bad reputation of guilt and corruption on
the parts of the past politicians. Scandals are always there badly affecting
voter psychology and trust upon the political system of voting in the first
place hitting the share of votes per candidate as well. Even in such dismal
conditions advertising is seen as a dominant means of communication between
those who seek office and the public as voter population.
Social scientists views of the mass media have undergone some cycling since the
widespread use of the electronic media, but recurrent themes can be recognized
in each era. The current era is marked by the search for the effects of
television viewing. The most obvious are the presidential debates viewed by
millions along with the expressions and gestures of the candidates. Mass
advertising is considered to be the most persuasive advertising in the political
campaign. Paul Freedman and L. Dale Lawton (2000) explored how voters perceive
campaign advertising and what their impact might be. They conducted two
telephone surveys of registered voters in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the
fall of 1998 and spring of 1999.
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They found that the 2000 Republican primary elections were most helpful in their
research because of the persuasiveness in personal advertising by George W. Bush
and John McCain in the election. Bush moved into South Carolina with a massive
advertising campaign that questioned McCain’s conservative credentials, his
record as a reformer, and even his military record. McCain responded by
launching a full-scale attack on Bush and broke his pledge to avoid negative
campaigning. Herrington has highlighted that credibility of the candidates
played the most important role in persuasively advertisement. Credibility is
comprised of the qualities of being believable, trustworthy, and reliable.
Another important factor useful in increasing the powers of advertisements is
the use of rhetoric. The visual rhetoric in the document's design has the
capacity to speak to readers just as strongly as the linguistic material does.
This is the modern inclusion of technology in the political advertising
campaigns.
References
Paul Freedman and L. Dale Lawton (2000) Does Campaign Advertising Depress Voter
Turnout? The Virginia NEWS LETTER Vol. 76 No. 3 May 2000
TyAnna K. Herrington (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Analyzing the Apple:
Persuasive Visual Rhetoric in the Campaign Literature of an Apple Party
Candidate, St. Petersburg, Russia
Low voter turnout, lack of candidates leads to ho-hum primary by Scott Bauer,
Published Tuesday, May 14, 2002, The Associated Press http://www.theindependent.com/stories/051402/new_turnout14.html
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