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Is the Media Destroying Politics?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
What do TV Ads Do?
What is the real point of a political TV ad? When it comes to products or services, the main purpose of an ad is to create brand recognition. Is that true too by politics? Is the point of TV ads for politicians just to get their name out there so people recognize it, and not to explain the ideas which the politician stands for? If this were true then the popular "content-free" ads should be the perfect ads, because they are simple and they give the politician a recognizable, positive image to the politician. If this were true then, in my humble opinion, negative ads would not be as popular. I think the reason negative ads are so popular in politics and unpopular in any other sort of market, is because the aim of political advertising is different than regular advertising. I think the point of political advertising is to create the believe in the minds of the viewers that the candidate featured in the ad, is the best person for the job. It is not like when one is shopping and you decide to buy the brand you know. People go to vote with the intent to vote for a certain candidate, so the aim of political ads is to create the belief that this candidate is the best, or in the case of a negative ad, the worst person for the job. I think this is why there is so much negative advertising in politics and so little in regular market advertising.
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That is a good point that you make but I think there is another that can also be made. Content-free ads are exactly that, they are content free and are there to publicize a candidate's name and image so that when people see said name on the ballot, they are able to associate it with something and preferably something positive such as sunshine and rainbows. However, content free ads do not highlight a candidate's qualities or serve to separate a candidate from the other candidates in a more meaningful way than to identify X as the candidate with Y ad. However, negative ads do separate the candidate from the pack by highlighting the flaws of a political opponent. Granted that another way for a candidate to distinguish himself from the pack is to create positive ads but negative ads serve the dual function of praising one candidate while lambasting an opponent compared to positive ads which only praise the candidate behind the ad. If possible, the ideal is to kill to birds with one stone and that is accomplished via negative advertisements, which can be another reason for their pervasiveness.
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