Get your Political Ad On

September 5, 2004 10:37 AM

A fantastic clearinghouse for thinking about political advertising can be found courtesy of the University of Iowa's Department of Communication Studies. Links include the previously discussed wonder "The Living Room Candidate" and even advertising consulting firms. Pretty good reading, with enough links to keep you busy for a while.
posted by hank_14 (3 comments total)

Thanks, hank. Heh, old campaign taglines:

"Vote yourself a farm"
-- Lincoln

"A full dinner pail"
-- McKinley

(what the heck is a dinner pail?
a lunch box?)

"The stakes are too high for you to stay at home"
-- Johnson
posted by digaman at 10:47 AM on September 5, 2004

A dinner pail is a big bucket, full of dinner.
posted by chrid at 1:00 PM on September 5, 2004

they have a very good report on the Willie Horton ad: This tolerance of negativity, combined with the grudging respect reporters had for the effectiveness of the GOP ads, created a pattern of coverage that benefited Bush. Rather than condemning the ad, as reporters had in 1964 with the "Daisy" ad, the reporters of 1988 did not complain when the "Revolving Door" commercial stayed on the air. They even rebroadcast the ad repeatedly throughout the last month of the campaign. This behavior effectively erased the traditional difference between the free and paid media. It gave Bush more air time and therefore lent him more credibility than any campaign organization alone could have managed. This style of news coverage helped make Bush's 1988 advertising campaign one of the most effective of the past twenty years.

The start of a trend that shows no sign of abating, re: swift boat liars.
posted by amberglow at 1:11 PM on September 5, 2004