The Armchair Voter: Commercial Ads and Elections 1952-2003
This 4-page undergraduate paper considers six political television commercials - Eisenhower’s 1952 “I Like Ike”commercial, Kennedy’s 1960 jingle-based television commercial, Nixon’s 1972 split-screen Vietnam-focussed advertisement, Reagan’s 1984 “Prouder, Stronger, Better” advertisement, a 1992 Clinton “Best Person” advertisement, and a 2003 MoveOn.org Voter Fund advertisement critical of president George W. Bush. This paper examines these six advertisements in order to answer a number of questions about them, including “What is the theme and intended audience of each commercial? How does the commercial make use of facts which can be verified as well logic and reasoning? How does the commercial use emotional appeals? How have television ads changed over the six decades?” Overall, this paper concludes that advertisements seem to have become less innocent, more apt to attack opponents rather than focus on individual strengths of a candidate. Television advertisements for political candidates have also changed in appearance, making greater use of appealing colour and moving images rather than still frames. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the overall thrust of political advertisements has changed very little since Eisenhower’s day. The commercials still aim to encourage voters to see themselves as “average” Americans who possess a great power through the vote. Commercials for political candidates continue to promote their messages mainly through emotional appeals, and employ the same themes of leadership and Americana as the earliest televised political commercials.
Pages: 4
Bibliography: 8 source(s) listed
Filename: 20673 Commercials Political Comparison.doc
