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The effectiveness of political ads
With in-person events curtailed, TV political ads may be more important than ever this year, but what makes one effective?
NEW YORK - With Election Day just weeks away, voters across the nation are seeing more and more of the old-school TV campaign ads.
A good example is the race for New York's 11th congressional district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.
Some local campaign ads in other parts of the country are also getting national attention.
Just this week, the Trump campaign also released an ad that tried to connect to the black community, using photos of legendary African Americans including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson. However, it quickly received backlash from their descendants, who considered the use of those images to be insulting. The tactic did work in 2013 however when a campaign ad for Mayor de Blasio featured his son Dante.
“The problem with these ads today is that they’re not what they used to see which were much more emotionally powerful,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
In a year where the coronavirus pandemic has prevented candidates from normal campaigning, Sheinkopf says the current crop of TV ads aren’t as powerful because families have so many other things to worry about like their health and their kids going to school.
“What you have to be able to do is have stuff that breaks through and forces people to pay attention, and there isn’t very much that does that. People watch what they want, when they want, they’ve taken the information they want, when they want to, and they really are kind of revolting and rebelling against having information shoved into their brains,” said Sheinkopf.
Whether or not you’re a fan of the TV campaign ads, you’ll definitely be seeing more of them in the coming weeks as we count down to Election Day.