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Presidential Campaign Advertisements and their Implications for Change in Presidential Campaigns Jessica Sullivan
T
elevised campaign advertisements have been an unrivaled benefit to candidates since their debut during the 1952 election cycle. They allow candidates to deliver their message directly to voters, unhindered by the dissenting voice of their opponents. Unlike in debates, candidates are able to say whatever they please without being contradicted or proven incorrect. Campaign ads also allow candidates to reach voters who may not be engaged in the political process. These voters may not attend rallies or read newspapers, but they watch television and so are still able to receive the candidate’s message. Perhaps most importantly, campaign advertisements give candidates the ability to decide the issues of the election. Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder (1982), among many others, have tested the agenda-setting potential of news coverage. They have found that frequent news coverage of certain issues leads viewers to perceive them as more important. Campaign advertisements, which primarily function to repeat messages, work in a very similar way. In making campaign ads, candidates are able to focus on issues which they want to discuss, therefore shaping the discourse of the election. Their capability to set agendas gives campaign advertisements historical significance, as their messages tend to reflect, and in many ways to inform, the issues and values important during a particular election cycle. In studying these ads, I hoped to identify ways in which presidential elections have changed since the introduction of this form of political communication. This project, however, is not purely historical; it attempts to make sense of current and future political conditions by analyzing those of the past. In this project, I decided to study the political and historical patterns of presidential elections and the campaign advertisements which function as windows into the important issues of the time. To do so, I have watched every presidential campaign advertisement from 1952 to 2016, placing each election from 1952 to 2012 into a particular group. The groups are as follows: 1952-1956, 1960-1968, 1972-1984, 1988-2000, and 2004-2012. I have deliberately excluded the 2016 election from this grouping, as it does not yet have the historical context necessary to be included. These groups allow for more in-depth analysis of the larger political trends.
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
T
he Post-War Elections, from 1952-1956, are the first of these eras. These two elections are unique in that they feature the same two major-party candidates: Dwight D. Eisenhower for the Republicans, and Adlai Stevenson for the Democrats. Despite having the same candidates, however, these two elections were different in that they showed how the candidates became more confident in their use of the medium. The 1952 campaign was the first to use television advertisements. Candidates used ads as brief speeches, public forums, and jingles. This diversity of form is unrivaled in subsequent elections, even in 1956. These elections are characterized not only by the diversity of form of the ads but by their content. In both years there were several ads on national defense and the economy, issues that may have been so prominent because of their proximity to the Second World War and the Great Depression. In fact, in one Stevenson jingle, he recalls the turmoil the Depression caused for farmers (“Let’s Not Forget the Farmer”). This ad, aimed at those affected most seriously by the Great Depression, encouraged voters to draw upon their experience with FDR—a Democratic icon whose support Stevenson hoped to tap into. This era gets its name, of course, from its position as the era immediately after the wartime elections. Its political climate was one in search of a new identity in response to the Second World War. Situated between the party shifts of the late 1930s and early 1960s (Knuckey 1999), the PostWar Elections were influenced by World War 2, the Korean War, and the Cold War. Combined with the constant threat of nuclear war, these conflicts threatened the perception, in the United States and abroad, that the nation was emerging as a world superpower, and that peace could be achieved through strength. Similarly, domestic matters reflected a contradiction within the nation’s values. The country celebrated economic stability and a sense of post-war prosperity that women and members of other marginalized groups often were not recipients of. As a result of this tension between the real and perceived state of affairs, there was a desire amongst the electorate for strength, stability, and a patriotic leader. In both elections, General Dwight D. Eisenhower filled this role. The next era, the Change Elections, occurred during the politically and socially tumultuous years of 1960-1968.
