August 17, 2022

Political Advertisement Analysis:

An effective political ad or campaign commercial works on several levels. It must make an effective argument, either for or against a candidate. It must work on an artistic level, using the techniques of filmmaking to capture the viewer’s attention and stay in their memories. And it must work on an emotional level, creating a connection with the voters. While a strong advertising campaign does not guarantee election, it often does indicate which candidate has a clearer and more effective message. It is not surprising, therefore, that in most years, the best ads also happen to be in support of the winning candidates.

REQUIREMENTS:

To complete this assignment, you will need the following:

Access to the internet;
An internet browser with Adobe Flash Player (Links to an external site.) installed in order to view the ads at the Living Room Candidate (Links to an external site.) website (alternatively, you can view the ads on YouTube (Links to an external site.));
A word processor, such as Microsoft Word, (Links to an external site.) to type-up the paper assignment;
The paper should take you at least three-hours to research and write; so do not leave it until the last day!

RESOURCES:

The paper assignment will make use of two internet resources:

Living Room Candidate (Links to an external site.): an internet website maintained by the Museum of the Moving Image (Links to an external site.) which archives television (and now internet) political ads from presidential campaigns from 1952 to the present;
The Presidency Project (Links to an external site.): an internet website maintained by the University of California Santa Barbara (Links to an external site.) (UCSB) which archives documents and other media relating to American presidential administrations, including campaign party platforms (Links to an external site.).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Choose one of the Top 10 Political Ads Download Top 10 Political Ads (if you want to analyse a different ad, you must first get my permission). Write a 5-paragraph paper (4 to 5 pages long) analyzing the ad that you have chosen. Your analysis should include a description of the campaign during which the ad aired, a description of the ad itself, as well as an argument about the quality of the ad: why was the ad effective? Your paper should include an introduction (paragraph 1) and a conclusion (paragraph 5), as well as a paragraph explaining the political context of the ad (paragraph 2), a paragraph describing the ad (paragraph 3), and a paragraph explaining why the ad was effective and has become famous (paragraph 4).

Be sure to follow all of the paragraph-by-paragraph directions listed below:

INTRODUCTION (paragraph 1): your first paragraph must include:
- An introduction of the ad itself (for example: This paper will analyze the political ad titled “[title of the ad you have chose]”).
- An introduction of the context of the ad (for example: The ad aired during the [year] presidential campaign between Democratic Party nominee [name] and Republican Party nominee [name ]).
- An outline the paper (for example: This paper will first describe the political context of the ad, second describe the ad itself, and finally make an argument about why the ad was effective).
- A thesis statement (Links to an external site.): one or two-sentence statement summarizing why you believe the ad was effective (for example: This ad was effective and has become famous because it made good use of music and symbolism to capture the viewer’s attention).

CONTEXT (paragraph 2): your second paragraph must include:
- During which campaign did the ad air?
- Who were the candidates in the campaign? Which political parties did they represent?
- What were the major political issues of the campaign that year? You can find this information by searching for surveys about the election you have chosen such as this Pew Research Center (Links to an external site.) article about the top issues of the 2016 election (Links to an external site.). Remember to cite your sources (more on citation below).
- What were the party platforms (Links to an external site.) of the candidates? You can find this information either at the American Presidency Project website here (Links to an external site.), or look for a news article summarizing the party platforms such as this 2008 New York Times article (Links to an external site.). Remember to cite your sources (more on citation below).
- Which candidate does the ad support or which candidate does the ad attack?
- What were the election results? Who won? How many electoral votes in the Electoral College (Links to an external site.) did they recieve? Which of the swing states (Links to an external site.) did they win? You can find this information in the Living Room Candidate (Links to an external site.) website.
DESCRIPTION OF THE AD (paragraph 3): your third paragraph must include:
- What happens in the ad? What story is being told?
- What does the viewer of the ad SEE, HEAR, and READ? The more detail the better!
- Is the ad negative or positive? Is it an attack ad?
- What is the overall message of the ad?

ANALYSIS OF THE AD (paragraph 4): your fourth paragraph must include:
- Why was the ad effective? In what way does it meet the description of an effective political ad listed above?
- How do the images, text, audio or music reinforce the candidate’s message?
- How does the ad appeal to the viewer’s emotions? Which emotions?
- What symbolism (Links to an external site.)does the ad use? How does it help the ad tell its message? For example, does the ad use a sunrise or dawn (Links to an external site.)to symbolism hope and a new beginning?
- Is the ad misleading? Does it trick the viewer? For example, is the ad racist (Links to an external site.), as is arguable the case with the “Willie Horton (Links to an external site.)” ad, or does it make exaggerated claims?
- What is your opinion of the ad? Would it have convinced you to vote for the candidate it supports or to not vote for the candidate it attacks?

CONCLUSION (paragraph 5): your fifth paragraph must include:
- Restatement of thesis: Why was the ad effective?
- In your opinion, what is the place of political ads in our politics? Do political ads mobilize or persuade voters? In your opinion, (1) are political ads effective at getting people to change their minds about who to vote for, (2) do political ads convince the undecided, (3) do they motivate the already committed to get out and vote on election day, and (4) are political ads overall a good thing or bad thing? (5) Should there be more regulations on political ads?

GRADING:

Your paper will be graded on a 100-point scale based on the following criteria:

Content (80 points): does your paper include all the required 5 paragraphs, each of which has all the required elements listed above? Is your paper at least 4-pages long?
Writing Style (10 points): does your paper use correct grammar and spelling. Does each paragraph begin with a topic sentence explaining what the paragraph will be about?
Format (10 points): is your paper double spaced, written in a 12-point font and with 1-inch margins? Does your paper have page numbers? Does your paper have a title? Does your paper cite its sources? Does your paper have a Work Cited page?

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Political Advertisement Analysis: