Florida voters were overwhelmed with political ads on their TVs, computers, mobile devices and phones in advance of the recent Florida primary. The television ads pushed traditional product commercials out of prime-time programming and dominated the commercial breaks. Fortunately, the commercials disappeared as quickly as they started\u2026at least until they start up again for the general election.<\/p>\n
If you voted, did you change your vote based on the ads?<\/p>\n
The marketing of political candidates through advertising has been extensively studied for over 50 years and the research found inconsistent evidence of the efficacy of political advertising in changing someone\u2019s voting choice.<\/p>\n
The commercials for candidates tend to promote \u201cwhat\u2019s good about me\u201d or \u201cwhat\u2019s bad about my opponent.\u201d The positive ads showed relaxed candidates surrounded by smiling and enthusiastic people from a representative demographic background. The negative ads used unflattering photos or video and comments clearly taken out of context to portray \u201cwhat\u2019s bad about\u201d the opposing candidate. Some of the positive ads offered information on the candidate\u2019s position on various issues although the negative ads generally focused on a candidate\u2019s unethical or questionable behavior.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t believe either one of the approaches although they do stir emotion in me, which is one of the purposes of the ads. Research has found that ads appeal to the emotions of voters, a practice that seems to subvert the rational decision-making on which democratic processes properly rest. This makes me feel manipulated, angry and disappointed in the candidates and the process of marketing the candidates through commercials.<\/p>\n
I follow politics because I view it as one of my responsibilities as a citizen. While I\u2019m not a\u00a0political expert, I feel I\u2019m informed about issues and the candidates\u2019 position on the issues. It\u2019s what determines my vote.<\/p>\n
But what about\u00a0the voters who are uninformed. Does the \u201cinformation\u201d in the political ads influence them more than me? Research says that it does. So in these cases, the ads have a dual role: provide information and stimulate emotion to influence their voting behavior.<\/p>\n
Political ads that trick people into acting contrary to their interests or on the basis of untruths should be criticized regardless of whether they make an appeal to emotion or logic.<\/p>\n
There is mounting empirical evidence that emotions are tied to ebbs and flows of voter participation. In contrast to many aspects of public affairs, evidence to date suggests that emotion has a positive<\/em> impact on getting citizens involved.<\/p>\n If the ads can get voters to the polls, I\u2019m all for it.<\/p>\n If the information in the ads is truthful and helps them to make an informed choice in the absence of having any information, I\u2019m all-in on that too.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s all<\/em> get to the polls next time.<\/p>\n William Steiger is an instructor and marketing consultant in UCF\u2019s College of Business Administration and coordinator of the college\u2019s Professional Selling Program. He can be reached at william.steiger@ucf.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida voters were overwhelmed with political ads on their TVs, computers, mobile devices and phones in advance of the recent Florida primary. The television ads pushed traditional product commercials out of prime-time programming and dominated the commercial breaks. Fortunately, the commercials disappeared as quickly as they started\u2026at least until they start up again for the general election. If you voted,…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":71254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[3753,7882,5623,14016],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-71525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-politics","tag-ucf-forum","tag-voting","tag-william-steiger"],"yoast_head":"\n