Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Effective Campaign Ads

I agree with almost everyone when I say that the most important aspect of an effective campaign ad is the emotion it's able to elicit. When something gives you a physical or emotional reaction just in a 30 second, maybe minute long clip it's obviously very well put together. Also, emotions usually make a more lasting impression on a voter and will be more likely to hang in the back of their minds while they are in the booth. Although it is important for politicians to tell the truth it can be extremely boring and numbers and trivial facts that don't impact the viewer directly will be easily forgotten. Another point to keep in mind is that people have almost become numb to style. We are surrounded by a lot of overwhelming stimulus and have almost evolved as a generation to tune it out. Finally, if an ad is capable of making a viewer have a strong feeling toward it it's most likely fairly persuasive; so while being persuasive is important by being able to get a reaction it's pretty much covered. While I find all these key points to be important I feel as if one of the bigger pieces is to be easy to follow and have a clear message. "Convention" by Nixon was extremely stylish to the point where I was questioning whether I was tripping but it was harder to follow, it may have been effective in it's time to the more informed citizens but it could have also gone way over their heads especially without the help of the internet to spread information of riots like wildfire. "Peace Little Girl" was better because not only did it make me feel something but it also made it easy to follow the message and which stance I should take with the issue at hand.

2 comments:

  1. "Another point to keep in mind is that people have almost become numb to style. We are surrounded by a lot of overwhelming stimulus and have almost evolved as a generation to tune it out."

    Interesting point...does the LBJ ad still shock?

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  2. Yes and no. When we watched it in class we were all shocked. We made you replay it so that Emily would have the chance to see it. It wouldn't make the headlines like it did all those years ago. This ad was shown once and it gained a lot of media attention. In our time period we saw it found it to be shocking enough to show our friends but weren't quick to open our "Report It" apps for WTNH and tell them all about it.

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