Truth Check

Pick a print campaign ad for any candidate, from any party. Now do a truth check:

• Who paid for this ad?
• What is this ad communicating?
• What is its message?
• How is the message being communicated?
• What is the purpose of this ad?
• How does this ad affect its viewers?
• How does it affect you?

Now find a television campaign ad for the same candidate. Do a truth check on this ad. Compare the two ads and what you found with the truth checks: is one more informative than the other? Are the messages communicated differently? Does it affect you differently? Which do you prefer and why?

Who Pays?

Fact: The U.S. Supreme Court has created two categories of political advertising: issue advocacy and express advocacy. Issue-oriented campaigns consist of ads that educate the public on issues broader than specific candidates. Express advocacy is advertising that explicitly recommends the election or defeat of a candidate.

Fact: A candidate ad is any advertising that contains clear expressions of support or opposition such as “vote for,” “elect,” “support,” “vote against,” “defeat,” or “reject.” While these phrases were originally intended as general guidance, they have become widely accepted as the defining test of express advocacy.

Watch the following issue ads:

• “No On Obamacare - Steve Kagen”
  
• “Is Harry Reid Strong Enough?”
  
• “Downgraded”
  
• “Kids”
  
• “Thanks, John!”
  

Explore how these ads are different from the “vote for me” campaign ads sponsored by specific candidates. How are they the same? Who pays for the issue-oriented ads? How close do these ads come to recommending candidates without using the prohibited “magic words”?

Media Matters

Pick a candidate for any office, from any party, and compare his/her campaign advertising. What is the role of the specific medium (television, Internet, newspaper, other print sources) in the effectiveness of the campaign ad? How are the television ads different from the print ads and from the Internet ads? Is the message different in the different media? Why would the media matter?

Now, using this same political candidate, create a site map for his/her Internet campaign based on all the information you have learned about this person. Compare the amount of information that will be communicated via this created Internet site with either a direct mail piece or a 60-second television ad.

Fact: In 2001, newspaper campaign ads nationwide accounted for about 1.7% of total advertising expenditures, according to the Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Find a new candidate you know nothing about. Find a newspaper ad for this individual and compare it to a television ad (you may need to look online for good examples of each). Which gives you more information? Which ad do you learn more from? Why do you think this is? Which is more entertaining? What does this mean?

Fact: Nearly 60% of Americans live in areas where no television ads were broadcast for the 2004 Presidential election (www.polisci.wisc.edu/tvadvertising). However, from March 2004 to August 2004, for just the presidential election, there were over 500,000 television ads nationwide.

If you were in an area where no television ads were shown about the candidates, would information on candidates be easy to get? Find a candidate’s website and look over the information. Compare this candidate to another candidate using the Internet. What information do you find? How do you know the information is correct? If you weren’t searching for the information, would you still get it?

Beyond the Message

Using www.livingroomcandidate.org, view at least three TV campaign ads from the 1996 election or earlier. For each of the ads, ask the following questions:

• Is this ad positive or negative? How do I know?
• Is this ad a comparison of more than one candidate? How is the comparision made?
• What are some “beyond the message” cues that helped you analyze this ad? Hint: what would you notice if you watched the ad without sound? What if you didn’t understand the language being spoken?
• Can you tell who funded this ad?

Now view the following TV campaign ads for 2010 Wisconsin elections.

• Tom Barrett's First TV Ad: “Jobs for Wisconsin”
  
• “Apple Pie”
  
• “What Happens in DC Hurts in Wisconsin”
  
• “Fein Gold Card”
  
• Scott Walker Ad:“Results”
  

For each of the ads, ask the following questions:

• Is this ad positive or negative? How do I know?
• Is this ad a comparison of more than one candidate? How is the comparision made?
• What are some “beyond the message” cues that helped you analyze this ad?
• Can you tell who funded this ad?
• How are these ads different from the earlier ones?

Explore the site www.wpt.org/30secondcandidate. Follow the link for “Tricks of the Trade” and use the videos provided to see the differences between positive and negative ads. How do some of these “tricks” compare to what you found in the previous activities? What are some cues that tell you whether an ad is positive or negative? Hint: what are the different categories you used to change the campaign ad on this site?

Create Your Own

Create your own advertisements! Choose whether you want to create an ad about yourself (as if you were running for office) or about a real candidate or issue. Then create a print ad, a television ad, and an Internet ad based on the ads you’ve seen.

Are your ads positive or negative? How do you go beyond the message to make your point? Will the audience know who is responsible for your ads? Are your ads truthful? Have a friend or family member do a truth check on one of your ads to be sure!