"The Campaign Advertising" Research Project

BACKGROUND: Students will be researching actual campaign advertisements to discover the tactics used by Presidential Candidates in a presidential campaign from the past. Students will research the political climate of the country at the time of the election, the advertisements and types of ads that were used and seen as effective in the campaign and will prepare a paper outlining their findings and answering a number of critical thinking questions regarding the topic.

SOURCE MATERIAL: The advertisements and much of the background information regarding this project will be found at the website

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org

Please note that the advertisements at this website can be viewed in a number of different ways, according the menus at the left side of the page. You will be selecting a particular election year to research, so it might be easiest to select ELECTION YEAR from the menus. There have been 15 presidential campaigns since 1952. Pick a year to research (Students need to make a strong effort to select different years from other people in the class.) There are at least SEVEN different advertisements for each presidential campaign and some years have many more ads than this and some years include the ads of Independent candidates, as well as Democrats and Republicans.

CAMPAIGN YEAR ASSIGNMENTS:

Campaign Year 4th Period Student/s 6th Period Student
1952: Eisenhower-Stevenson
Krystal S.
 Emily A.
1956: Eisenhower-Stevenson
Megan V.
1960: Kennedy-Nixon
Kayla G.
 Nancy P.
1964: Johnson/Goldwater
Lucius C.
 Alejandra L.
1968: Nixon/Humphrey/Wallace
Lisa H.
 Andy R.
1972: Nixon/McGovern
Natasha R.
 Mariah S.
1976: Carter/Ford
Coreen M.
 Jeremy K.
1980: Reagan/Carter/Anderson
CJ P.
 Erin V.
1984: Reagan/Mondale
Blake G.
 Kevin P.
1988: Bush/Dukakis
Emily L.
1992: Clinton/Bush/Perot
Conner J.
 Keaton S.
1996: Clinton/Dole
Jacob H./Joe S.
2000: Bush/Gore
James P.
 Jared L.
2004: Bush/Kerry
Nathan W.
 Kristofer T.
2008: Obama/McCain
Arlene V.
 Chris V.
2012: Obama/Romney
Isaac H.
Emylee A.

Students are required to use at least 4 OTHER resources for information regarding this project (see below.)

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION:

There are lots of different types of Political Advertisements, everything from the glittering endorsement ad to the mudslinging hatchet piece. Below, you will find a guide to the different types of Advertisements used in past presidential campaigns. Become familiar with them, as you will be finding examples of each from your political year.

A Guide to Campaign Advertisements

A. Testimonial – endorsements from celebrities and other well-known people.

B. Mudslinging – often referred to as “attack ads,” the TV, radio and print advertisements make assertions about the opponent in a variety of unflattering ways. Name-calling and/or groundless assertions about one candidate by his/her opponent. This advertising strategy is used by a candidate primarily to create a negative impression of one’s opponent. This strategy may backfire and create a negative impression of the candidate who is responsible for the creation of the negative ad if used excessively, or in a manner that is perceived as false, deceptive, “tasteless” or “going too far.”

C. Transfer – Use of popular symbols to create a positive connotation for the candidate or the use of negative or controversial symbols to create a negative connotation of one’s opponent.

D. Card stacking – Use of statistics, often in a one-sided manner; the omission of information that is crucial to drawing an informed and balanced conclusion.

E. Plain Folks – An attempt by a candidate to appeal to the average voter as just “one of the people.”

F. Glittering Generalities – Usually the first type of ad used in a campaign, these spots are designed to introduce a candidate to the voters. Needless to say, like any introduction, these types of ads are almost always very positive. Designed to leave the viewer with a very good first impression. This ad type uses very vague words and phrases that have a positive effect on the viewer and appeal to a variety of interests.

G. Bandwagon – Similar to card stacking, this is an attempt to convey a sense of momentum and to generate a positive “everybody’s doing it so you should too” mentality.

H. Contrast Ad – Juxtaposing positive images of one’s candidacy with negative images of the opponent in the same ad.

I. Backfire – A form of contrast ad that uses the words of an opposing candidate, usually out of context, in a way that shows the opponent to be breaking a promise, flip-flopping on an issue or out of touch with the reality of a political situation.

HOW TO PROCEED:

  1. Once you have selected your year, do some background research on the website regarding the political climate of the year in question. You can find this information on the BLUE year tab for your Presidential Campaign Page. In addition, each candidate in the election also has information on their own tabs, which relate facts and information regarding their approach to campaign advertising. Read through all of this information. Take notes.
  2. Once you feel that you understand the political climate in which the election took place, watch the commercial advertisements that are available for each candidate. Pay special attention to the different types of ads mentioned above. Take notes regarding any advertisements that stand out for you as interesting, influential or persuasive, as you will need to describe at least three different types of ads used in your campaign for each of your major party candidates.
  3. Take special note of any commercials that the website notes as being historically significant, such as the 1964 “Peace Little Girl (Daisy)” commercial. You will need to explain the importance of these in your work, as well.
  4. Once you have reviewed all of the commercials from your campaign, check the last tab on the webpage, the RESULTS tab. This will show you a map of which states voted for which candidates. You will need to do additional research into the campaign and the results. Pay special attention to any information regarding advertising and campaign results.

THE TOPIC SENTENCE: A week into your preliminary research, all students should have a good general idea of the issues regarding the election, as well as the commercial campaigns that were in play. Students will be required to SUBMIT IN WRITING THEIR TOPIC SENTENCE for their paper (see point #1 below). This will be a declaritive statement that you make that will be proven in your writing. This part of the project will be given a "Yes/No" grade of 50 points.

THE PAPER: You will be writing a 5-10 page paper regarding “Campaign Advertising in the XXXX Presidential Election.” This paper will be a FORMAL writing, in which you will make an assertion regarding the election you have researched and will proceed to back up your assertion with facts and figures. Proper grammar, complete sentences and logical thought are REQUIREMENTS for this paper. Any paper that does not demonstrate these qualities will be returned to the student for rewriting before a grade will be given.

I need to see AT LEAST the following:

  • TOPIC SENTENCE/PARAGRAPH
  • BACKGROUND INFORMATION REGARDING CAMPAIGN, CANDIDATES, WORLD SITUATION, CONTEMPORARY ISSUES (at least 10 paragraphs)
  • DESCRIPTION AND REVIEW OF THREE CATEGORIES OF COMMERCIALS FOR EACH CANDIDATE: (6+ PARAGRAPHS)
  • TOPIC SENTENCE SUPPORT PARAGRAPHS (at least 3-4 PARAGRAPHS)
  • WRAP-UP INFORMATION PARAGRAPHS (at least 1-3 PARAGRAPHS)
  • a CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH.

Your Paper MUST cover all of the following points (not necessarily in order):

  1. Your assertion regarding campaign advertisements and the election. This can be “Negative campaigning successfully won the campaign for Candidate A,” or “The Bleeding Head Advertisement was successful in winning over voters for Candidate B”, or “Candidate B's desire to avoid negative campaign advertisements probably cost him the election.”
  2. Outline of the basic political climate of your political campaign. Who was running from what political parties? What were some of the major issues involved in the campaign? What were the major issues, crises in the world at the time? What was the mood and expectations of the American public?
  3. Give a short history of the ads used in your campaign by outlining AT LEAST different three categories (listed above) of ads used by EACH candidate. Describe the significance of any historical campaign ads. Describe the ads and whether or not you feel they were effective campaign vehicles.
  4. Describe which ads YOU FEEL were most effective in the campaign and why.

SOURCES: In addition to the livingroomcandidate.org website, students are required to use AT LEAST FOUR other sources for their information for this paper. These can be online or hardcopy resources. You MUST include a SOURCE page at the end of your paper, with all sources properly listed. I would like students to use APA style in their citations. For assistance, you can use this handy citation generator found online: http://www.citefast.com/

Here is the proper APA citation for the website livingroomcandidate.org:

References

Museum of the Moving Image (2012). Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008. Retrieved from http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Here is a list of the specific requirements for this paper to be properly submitted for grading:

  • 5-10 page paper typed in a 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced.
  • FORMAL written work, including proper spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Informal or coarse language will be grounds for paper rejection.
  • Cover Sheet, to include paper title, student name, class and date.
  • Separate typed sources page at the end of the paper, using APA format. (This page DOES NOT go towards your 5-10 page paper requirement.)
  • Use of AT LEAST FOUR different sources, other than the livingroomcandidate.org website. (NOTE: "google.com" is not a source.)
  • Late work will lose 10 percent of total grade per day for the first four days late. Papers turned in after 3/8 will be eligible for a top score of 60 percent.

Any student NOT adhering to any of the rules above will have their paper returned and their work will be late.

GRADING: This is THE major project for this semester and will be graded according to the following criteria:

  • Proper written THESIS STATEMENT submitted promptly= 50 points.
  • Proper use of all of the grammatical and writing requirements as listed above= 50 points.
  • Proper use and support of a topic sentence= 100 points.
  • Proper demonstration of research into the topic= 100 points.
  • Proper coverage of all of the questions and points listed above= 100 points.
  • Proper submission requirements (paper typed, proper citations sheet, on time, etc.)= 50points.