RepAds09


 * 1) Patriotism: The ad stresses the candidate’s love of and service to his/her country.
 * 2) Gender: The ad presents the candidate as appropriately “manly” (or feminine) to make viewers trust him/her.
 * 3) Family: The ad uses images of ideal families to give you a positive image of the candidate.
 * 4) Excitement: The ad tries to create a sense of energy and excitement around the candidate.
 * 5) Star Power: A celebrity is telling you that they support the candidate.
 * 6) Bandwagon: The ad tries to create the impression that everybody already supports the candidate.
 * 7) Put Downs: The ad insults the candidate’s opponent.
 * 8) Facts and Figures: The ad uses facts and statistics to support the candidate’s policies.
 * 9) Just Folks: The ad portrays the candidate as a “regular guy” (or girl).
 * 10) Heart Strings: The ad tells a story that makes you feel good.
 * 11) Sounds Good: The ad uses music (with or without lyrics) to be memorable, entertaining and exciting.
 * 12) Cartoons and Animals: The ad makes its point with cartoon characters or (usually symbolic) animals.
 * 13) Weasel Words: The ad includes promises that sound good but lack details.
 * 14) Integrity: The ad tries to convince you that the candidate is honest and trustworthy.
 * 15) Fear: The ad tries to frighten you into voting for the candidate (or at least not voting for his/her opponent).

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/advertising_marketing/political_advertising_techniques.cfm

http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/

There are several strategies that a candidate must determine before beginning his campaign. These include the tone(a positive build me up message or a negative attack the other guy message), the theme (a simple repeating idea that can be repeated over and over, like "yes we can," Jimmy Carter and his trust, and Ronald Reagan and his competence. The timing is also important, because a relatively unknown candidate will have to campaign a lot during the primaries. Someone who is well known has the choice to run his opponents out quickly or have a slow and steady pace through the entire race. The last part of a strategy is the target, or the people who want to focus on to get to vote for you.

eras of political campaigns: 1980 and 1984 - The hot topic in these two campaigns was the economy. In the 1980 election, Reagan focused on how he will rebuild the ecomony with supply side economics and a balanced budget. Jimmy Carter criticized Reagan, but since he did not come up with a plan of his own. Ronald Reagan's "Its morning again in America" campaign in 1984 also focused on the economy, and how much it has improved since Reagan took office in 1980. It is considered one of the most successful campaigns ever and helped him beat Walter Mondale in the election.

1970s - Wars, like the Vietnam war and Cold War, were the focus of the entire decade. Gerald Ford's campaign failed during this time when he claimed that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union ," which lost him several votes to Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was also hurt when he claimed that he would give a pardon to all draft dodgers, which lost many conservative votes.

1960s - Attack ads about nuclear war was used commonly throughout this decade, often portraying opponents as those who will lead to war with the Soviet Union. The most famous ad was the Daisy Girl video that LBJ used against Barry Goldwater and was extremely effective because of both its shocking content and the message that Goldwater's aggressive handling of the cold war will lead to the detonations of bombs.