Today we touched on the images and phrasing politicians use to help get their message across. After looking at print ads from Peter King and Kemp Hannon we viewed several commercials on YouTube.com
What images are these politicians using in their commercials?
What catch phrases are they using?
Who seems to be the target audience for these ads?
What information do we learn about the candidates from these ads?
What do all the ads (print and video) have in common?
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The politicians use the commercials know to show us who can speak and be remembered best by showing us "30 seconds of personality." Which is why they don't really cover any issues. They show you pictures of them "working" or helping with events. In some of the commercials they show what kinds of problems they overcame or got rid of, like one shown a politician dealing with the KKK. In some commercials they may twist the words around to attack their opponent, or use images to make them look evil. One commercial put Hilary Clinton's face next to Osama Bin Laden and another terrorists picture. Or Pirro twisted around the accusations on her to make it seem like her opponent was causing trouble by her saying "let him come out from hiding." From what i have heard in the classroom and seen I feel like it is now become a popularity contest with people stepping on others to get to the top. The real problems should be dealt with not pictures and speakers.
Michelle Asciote
I am in definite agreement with Michelle. The politicians use "Fluff" to fill the 30 seconds. To me, the "Fluff" is them playing with kids or helping old people. Those are the "He's a family man/nice guy commericals". Then there are the Pirro commercials, "Let my opponent stop being a coward." kind of commercials. Elections are NOT about the better candidate anymore. Its all about how that candidate can manipulate the media.
I don't think they use catch phrases so much as words/issues that they repeat or they use 3 words to describe them (Confident, determined, focused, etc.) It sticks in your head because its so definite and its repeated.
We learn nothing from these ads except that their PR people are competant! They lack any substantial information and it seems like its elementary school elections. False promises and bad words about opponents.
They are similar to the extent that all the candidates are working toward a common goal... To get elected!
The ads that some politicians come out with don’t make sense. For example one ad I saw in class was all different pictures about this that happen years ago. The candidate was talking about other things. The video was so fast that you only could remember the pictures. Which is a bad thing because you vote for him on what he is going to do for our state. Most candidates have their ads in English and there was one candidate who had is in Spanish. The ad was a Spanish song that people who can not translate it think he is talking about what he is going to do for our state so they vote for him. Then I saw the Pirro ad and she makes her opponent look like he was the one who talked about her personal life. So that people thinks he is the bad guy.
I think that when politicians try to promote topics that cannot be challenged by their opponent they appear to be weak because they are not voicing their opinions on all the topics that matter. It seems that they don't want to debate important topics with their opponents, which makes me think that they are only trying to promote their cause and not the different causes that the community wants resolved. What stuck with me most in class is when Pirro used "Cuomo hiding" in the same sentence with "they (government) didn't find anything about me", which made her seem that she was blaming Cuomo for the investigation into her personal life. She using the classic tatic of associating a name to a topic to confuse voters. I also couldn't get over Cuomo's commercial where someone else stated all the things he has accomplished and a burning cross associated with the KKK came across the screen. When I saw it I couldn't remember anything else that was said about him because I kept on going back to that moment, which I think made it a very bad commercial because people remember the cross and not anything else that was said, whereas with Pirro's commercial she only stated one point that made it more memorable. When Mr. Brown asked us what we thought about Cuomo's commercial everyone remembered the cross, which I think is very uneffective. I agree with what Michelle said about how during the commercials they don't actually talk about the issues that are facing us now. Some politicians address certain problems, but most talk about the past and what they've accomplished without talking about the future and what they want to accomplish, which I think is more important.
I agree with Sam and Michelle; elections are no longer about parties or deciding who the better candidate is and who is going to do the most for the people. Elections are about popularity and make-up artists and who can achieve that coveted celebrity status. The player who gets himself stuck in your head, like that one bad song that you can't stand but keeps rolling about in there, is the player who wins. They get a medal and a prize in the form of a title and a paycheck and to hell with everyone but those people, that one demographic of people, who got them elected. Pretty disgusting, no?
But, hey, if everything is about money and all the politicians care about is money and all the people who elect them care about is money, then why don't we all just go ahead and study political science and advertisement to become Public Relations people and makers of advertisements?
Better though, than serving our self-serving civil servants, would be to run for office and win ourselves.
~joanna vogel
I agree with Michelle also because even when Mr. Brown explained how we would get into politics. The first thing he mentioned was the fact that you have to know somebody. Even if you do start early and all of that you still have to know somebody in the game. Now you may start to ask yourself why do you need to know somebody. I can answer that for you to me politics can be described in three words popularity, respect, and power. The first is popularity because once you gain a certain amount of people on your side. Its almost like you have won half of the battle. Once you have the amount of people you need to follow you and with your opinions. Then you gain the respect of those who are ready to take your believes and run with them and try to influence others to follow the same ideas. They now have learned to respect. People in politics also start to gain your respect by making their commercials with them doing good deeds in the community. Which I think anybody your running for you would want to know that they are giving back to where they came from. So they basically feed their audience what they want. Next comes power once you have gain the popularity to get people on your side then you get their respect to believe in what you feel is right. Then your power level will rise for the better. Now you have developed all the basic skills to becoming a politician. If you look back on my three words to describe being a politician, and not one of them were to be smart or hard working or loyal, or caring. None of those words mean anything ands that’s a lot of the reason why. many people don’t get out there and vote because no body is in the game for the right reason anymore. So why try and change something that the world turns the other check to and pretends that the real issues don’t count. So I ask how could my vote?
Chrisitne, does the world have to be like this or are we just letting it happen?
WITH ONLY 3O SEC. OF COMMERCIAL TIME CANIDATES HAVE TO COVER AS MUCH AS THEY CAN TO DESCIBE WHO THEY ARE AS A PERSON, WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT, HOW THEY CAN SERVEOR HELP US, AND FURTHER MORE. I THINK THAT THE TIME THEY HAVE IS NOT ENOUGHT SINCE THEY ARE TALKIN ABOUT THERE OPPONENT... RATHER THEN WHAT THEY WILL DO FOR US... FOR SOME CANITDATENTS I FEEL THAT THEY ARE WASTING THEIR TIME TRASHING ON THE OTHER OPPONENT. I THINK THAT WAS KIND OF SHOWS NOTHING POISITVE BUT IT SHOWS THEM SNEAKING AROUND GETTING DIRT RATHER THEN TRYING TO FIX WHAT IS NOT RIGHT IN THIS CURRUPT WORLD. AS FAR AS I SAID AND WHAT VISHNELL ABOUT "I feel as if the politicians aren’t giving me a good enough reason to vote for them with these commercials" I TOTALLY AGREE WITH HER. THEY ARE NOT GIVING GOOD REASONS TO VOTE ON THEIR BEHALF.THE COMMERCIALS LOOKS AS IF THEY FOCUS NOW EVERYTHING BESIDES WHAT THEY ARE DOING FOR US. IT IS ALL ABOUT A BATTLE AND NOT WHAT THEY CAN DO... THEY SHOULD JUST GIVE THEM MORE TIME… BUT THEN FOR WHAT SO THEY CAN BAD TALK MORE ABOUT THEIR OPPONENT
Although I was not present in class that day and unfortunately missed the videos from You Tube, looking at several peoples responses I wish I did see them. However from my own experience there are many politicians now who have the most ridiculous commercials I’ve ever seen. Every politician is always “bagging” on their opponent in a negative way. And another thing, in every single commercial, politicians are ALWAYS either with the elderly or with little children. Why can’t they film with a poor person? Because they feel that that might bring their “reputation” down. When people see several different politicians’ commercials that look the same and the words are similar they get turned off and change the channel. After a while it gets boring. And it’s not even like anyone can walk off the street or wake up one day and decide to become a politician you have “fit the specific requirements.”
In class we discussed ways politics use certain words, or images to make certain points or ideas come across. The discussion we had in class was interesting and opened up a lot of comments. In my life I have seen many political commercials but never knew or understood the message behind it. But after we analyzed them in class I learned the difference between the commercials that are for or against a certain candidate. I also realized most political commercials are the same. As many people said before in class and or the blog most of the positive commercials show the candidate that the commercial is supporting either playing with kids, doing some kind of work in an office, or talking to older people. And most of the more negative commercials bash on the opposing candidate. I don’t find either of these commercials effective because it doesn’t say or show what the candidate can do for you or the country. None of the commercials say what they are going to do while they are in the office. I think you can’t chose who you are going to vote for based on the commercials because they never say what they are going to do while they are in office. The only way you can pick a candidate is based on their reputation.
Late after this post
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