Page 124 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

ADVERTISING

mentioned criticism of advertising’s negative impact on the political
process. The form of the 30/60-second spots, it is argued, deter-
mines a content which is inevitably grounded in image rather than
substantive issues.

The rise of image
The second general trend in US political advertising, then, is
towards greater emphasis on the construction of the candidate’s
image (or the destruction of an opponent’s), and away from the
communication of an issue or policy position. Richard Joslyn
observes that of 506 ‘spots’ shown on American television between
1960 and 1984, only 15 per cent contained information about
specific policies, while 57 per cent addressed the personal and
professional qualities of the candidate – his or her ‘image’ (1986).
In 1992, successful candidate Bill Clinton’s image was constructed
around notions of youth, vigour and radicalism, contrasting vividly
(as it was surely meant to) with the advanced age and conservatism
of his opponent George Bush. Ronald Reagan’s image was that of a
‘nice guy’ – handsome and congenial, while firm and unbending
against the enemies of freedom. Jimmy Carter’s image, which
helped him to be elected in 1976, was of a self-made small
businessman (peanut farmer), independent of the Washington
establishment which had produced the corruption of Richard
Nixon and the complacency of Gerald Ford.
For Joslyn, the prominence of image in advertising is ‘a troubling
discovery’ (ibid., p. 180), confirming the widely-held view that
advertising-dominated election campaigns are far removed from the
normative ideal of the liberal democratic process, in which citizens
learn and choose rationally on the basis of policy. As he puts it, ‘we
are forced to ponder the possibility that our electoral process does
not enhance the type of information-holding and political choice
that are the most clearly and directly associated with democratic
theory’ (ibid., p. 183).

Myth and symbol
If it is a matter of empirical fact that US political advertisements
have become steadily more image-oriented, rather than issue-
oriented, in terms of what they say about the candidates they
are selling, it is also true that ads have become more symbolic, or
mythological (in the Barthian sense). In the 1960s US ‘spots’ began

103