Campaign Commercials

From the start, Government and Economics class as been overly intriguing. I have not only been interested but have become more appreciable. Learning more everyday about how important roles and jobs are in the government and especially in the Presidential Election Process has become surprisingly a big focus of mine.  From the flourishing social media that plays such a large role, keeping up with the most current news has not been a problem.  Through magazines, television, facebook, twitter and much more people are able to form ideas and make decisions through these advertisements about their views on the presidency. With social media being so common today, campaign commercials have been the most influential topic for me that we’ve learned so far.  Campaign commercials reach their peak of importance during elections.  This is when candidates can truly show off and publicize their whole perspective on how they would rule, and the greater percentage of the world will be able to watch it.  

 

Particular types of campaign commercials interest individual people in different ways, which is why campaign commercials are so successful today.  They not only keep hold of their supporting viewers but help grab the attention and opinions of other viewers and take them in as well. Many ways campaign commercials do this is by flaunting the good in their candidate’s views.  Providing factual information or reasons to why this choice would be for the better of our nation to the people as a whole.  Giving reassurance their vote will help make their nation a happier and more successful place than it has ever been. 

 As many find it crucial to present their candidates glory, others find it more beneficial to slander their opponent.  Manipulation is one of the key factors that make these commercials so captivating. These attacking commercials show a one sided view of a destructive belief a candidate holds that they don’t agree with or a scandalous act they’ve partaken in.  It’s quite obvious with these commercials which candidate threatens them.  Personal humiliation towards an opponent has been shown many times throughout the years. A great example of this is in the Republican commercial, From Hope to Hypocrisy: Excuses, Excuses: http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/2012/.   In this ad it is shown that President Obama has said he will not make any excuses however he uses many such as “were not there because this recession turned out to be a lot worse than anyone realized”, as well as, “I came in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression”.  This shows his viewers that he cannot keep to his word, which can possibly question a lot of people’s ideas about him that helps other candidates and threatens his chances. 

 These commercials have a great impact on society today, and get more influential and interesting each year. Without these commercials, a lot of campaigning and the ability to voice candidate’s aspects and modify the viewers opinions to get more votes would be at a loss.