Recent forum focuses on 'the selling of the president'

by Linsey Heiser news editor

Election Day is only a month away and in order to help students and faculty understand a little more about the election, a forum was held on the "Selling of the President." In order for the President to be sold, the most important thing is to know what the public wants.

The first humanities forum for the 20002001 school year was held in the Grace Hall Board Room on Tuesday, Oct. 3 from 3:15 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Dr. James Hedtke, associate professor of history and political science, was the moderator of the forum, while three professors had 15 minutes to offer their expertise on different aspects in the way that the candidates are being sold.

According to Hedtke, the 2000 presidential election is turning out to be a "statistical dead heat" and also the most expensive election in history, so it is very crucial how the candidates are presented in such situations as the recent debates.

Ruby Remley, assistant professor of business administration, spoke about the marketing of the candidates. According to Remley, the most important aspect of marketing the candidate is to understand what the public wants. The way this is done is by reading polls, such as the Gallup poll and polls on NBC and CNN. Then, the candidate must create a package of services and goods, according to what people want, and present the package using the media, such as television, telephone and email.

The four P's, according to Remley, are also important. They are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. These are all important in marketing the candidate to the appropriate audience using the media.

Remley encourages everyone to become informed voters. ''Listen carefully, analyze the infonnation, read the newspaper and understand where the candidates stand on issues to use in deciding on who to vote for," Remley said.

Cathy Yungmann, associate professor of communication, spoke on the image making of the candidates. ''The most information that we get about the candidates is from television," Yungmann said.

Yungmann showed a clip of an appearance of Republican candidate, George W. Bush. Flags were positioned behind him, as were police officers. This shows him to be very patriotic and that he cares about the law.

In a similar appearance by Democratic candidate, Al Gore, flags were also positioned behind him and he was wearing earth tones, which according to Yungmann, made him seem more human.

"Being conscious of the stage and setting will form opinions by the audience based on such things," Yungmann said.

Harvey Lape, instructor of philosophy, focused on the advertising of the candidates. According to Lape, there is no re- quirement to tell the truth. The advertising is meant to persuade in different ways. One way is to appeal to hopes, or the audience would make up their minds without thinking about the candidate or their issues. Another way to persuade is to appeal to fear, or attempting the audience to vote for a candidate by scaring them. Another way of persuasion is by using subliminal advertising by using such phrases as "you deserve it."

"Most advertising is morally objectionable," Lape said. "It's more important, however, to have the image."

An issue brought up at the conclusion of the forum was how students get their views on the issues that the candidates are supporting and not supporting. Most of the influence comes from parents and television. In order to win the votes from the youth, candidates will most likely appear on shows like late night talk shows or MTV to give an appearance of youthfulness.