Page 120 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 99

ADVERTISING
worlds of politics, entertainment, the arts, and sport. This is the political
advertisers’ variant of the association strategy used by commercial adver-
tisers described above. In testimonials, the authority and status of the witness
is (the advertiser hopes) transferred to the candidate/product.
To this list Jamieson adds the neutral reporter format, in which the viewer
is presented with a series of apparently factual statements about a candidate
(or the opponent) and then invited to make a judgment. While ‘neutrality’ is
obviously absent from such an advertisement (the tactic is used frequently in
the most cynically negative of spots) the speaker adopts the narrative
conventions which signify neutrality and objectivity to impart the message.
The intended impression is one of neutrality.
From the professional perspective of the advertiser, each of these types of
ad will present different problems and objectives. Sometimes (though
relatively rarely, as we have seen) the goal of an ad will be to articulate policy.
Elsewhere, particularly in relation to an incumbent’s campaign for re-election,
it will be necessary to claim credit for real or alleged successes. The
challenger’s advertising, on the other hand, will aim to prioritise the real or
alleged failures of the incumbent. In other cases still, the aim of the ad will
be problem-identification. A key element of Ross Perot’s 1992 television
campaign, for example, was to identify for voters a problem – the economy
and how to improve it – which he felt was being neglected. Problem-
identification of this type may also be thought of as agenda-setting.
Diamond and Bates (1992) identify four phases of a typical US political
advertising campaign:

• First, the basic identity of the candidate must be established as a
foundation on which to build subsequent information. In this phase,
positive biographical details are highlighted, such as a distinguished war
record (a tactic used by John F. Kennedy and George Bush in their
presidential campaigns), or outstanding business success.
• Second, the candidate’s policies are established in broad terms with the
minimum of extraneous detail, and with emotional charge (as in Bush’s
‘Read my lips! No new taxes!’ slogan, or Bill Clinton’s ‘It’s the economy,
stupid’, also of 1992). Obama’s successful 2008 campaign adopted the
slogan ‘Can we do this? Yes we can!’.
• Third, the opponent should be attacked, using negatives.
• And finally, the candidate must be endowed with positive meaning in the
context of the values and aspirations of the electorate (as these have been
identified by market researchers). In this phase the campaign will seek to
synthesise and integrate the candidate’s positive features, allowing him or
her to acquire resonance in the minds of the voters. Thus, Ronald Reagan
comes to stand for the reassertion of traditional American values; Bill
Clinton for ‘change’ in 1992 and ‘continuity’ in 1996. Dick Morris’s
account of the Clinton re-election campaign shows how the president,

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