Political Ads
How much? Between TV and Radio there has been nearly $3 billion spent during the 2018 Midterm Elections The top market is Orlando/Daytona Beach, FL with over $110 million in spending $75 million has been spent in Phoenix, ranking 8th in total spending for all markets More money has been spent on the 2018 Midterms than the 2012 Presidential Election
Where it began From nearly the beginning, candidates have been advertising The first advertisements were in print Many political ads were cartoons that were not directly tied to the candidates John Q. Adams was the first candidate to run an actual campaign ad
Where it began In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower created the first television ad
Where it began In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower created the first television ad
Where it began The vast majority of advertising focused on the positive side of candidates prior to 1964 In 1964 Lyndon Johnson ran the “Daisy Girl” ad, which many people viewed as the first negative political ad
Where it began The vast majority of advertising focused on the positive side of candidates prior to 1964 In 1964 Lyndon Johnson ran the “Daisy Girl” ad, which many people viewed as the first negative political ad
Where it began Since 1964 political advertising has been a mixture of positive and negative advertising The thought of most political strategists was that positive ads get people to vote for a candidate The following 40 years, after the “Daisy Girl” ad, saw mostly positive advertising
Where it began Sing 1964 political advertising has been a mixture of positive and negative advertising The thought of most political strategists was that positive ads get people to vote for a candidate The following 40 years, after the “Daisy Girl” ad, saw mostly positive advertising
Where it began Sing 1964 political advertising has been a mixture of positive and negative advertising The thought of most political strategists was that positive ads get people to vote for a candidate The following 40 years, after the “Daisy Girl” ad, saw mostly positive advertising
When did it change? The 2006 gubernatorial race in Texas saw the introduction of science and psychology being applied to campaigning Prior to this race, political strategists relied on data analysis as the main tool in campaigning Random polling was the best technology used by campaigns
The Perry Campaign Rick Perry’s campaign used randomized controlled trials to test advertising The Perry campaign did an ad blitz to shore up support prior to the election They spent $2 million on negative advertising in 18 markets across Texas The research found that the advertising created a 5% gain but only lasted about a week Perry won the election, and the new form of research became the new normal
Hacking the brain As elections get tighter, new tactics begin to emerge Fear ads begin to appear in the 2000 presidential election The psychology of these ads aren’t researched until 2008 Researchers find that when people view and believe fear ads they are less likely to stick to a single party In the 2000 election, George W. Bush used subliminal messaging to ad an element of fear to an ad
Hacking the brain As elections get tighter, new tactics begin to emerge Fear ads begin to appear in the 2000 presidential election The psychology of these ads aren’t researched until 2008 Researchers find that when people view and believe fear ads they are less likely to stick to a single party Since 2000, subtle tactics have been commonplace in political ads to stoke fear
Hacking the brain Since studies in 2008, the majority of campaign ads have skewed to negative or fear ads The idea is simple: Positive ads keep your base Negative and Fear ads push voters away from a candidate When children are involved in a fear ad, people tend to skew toward a conservative candidate
Does it work? Negative ads have been shown to create more thoughtful voters People are more likely to research opinions after viewing negative advertising Bad candidates don’t see huge statistical gains when relying purely on negative advertising The one thing that always matters is money spent, the more advertising that is out there almost always equates to more votes