GURU NANAK COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE AND COMMERCE

PROJECT ON
ADVOCACY VS ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATION
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

By Roll No. 23 Semester - 1

Academic year 2013-14 Under the guidance of Arundhati

ADVOCACY VS ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to continue or take some new action. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. This type of work belongs to a category called affective labor.

In Latin, ad vertere means "to turn toward. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television commercial, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as blogs, websites or text messages.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through "branding," which involves associating a product name or image with certain qualities in the minds of consumers. Non-commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement (PSA).

Advocacy is a political process by an individual or group which aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research or polls or the filing of an amicus brief. Lobbying (often by lobby groups) is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on an issue which plays a significant role in modern politics.[1] Research is beginning to explore how advocacy groups in the U.S.[2] and Canada[3] are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

Forms of advocacy
There are several forms of advocacy, each represents different approach in a way change is brought into society. One of the most popular forms is social justice advocacy. Although it is true, the initial definition does not encompass the notions of power relations, peoples participation and a vision of a just society as promoted by social justice advocates. For them, advocacy represents the series of actions taken and issues highlighted to change the what is into a what should be, considering that this what should be is a more decent and a more just society (ib., 2001)

The Effects Of Issue Advocacy Vs Advertising

Issue advocacy advertising has been a prevalent feature of political campaigns in American politics. These ads present a candidate in a favorable or unfavorable light and urge voters to support the sponsoring organizations issue position. The amount of money spent on these ads has grown rapidly. During the 2000 presidential election, more than $500 million was spent on issue advocacy television and radio advertising and the 2004 election recorded another big surge in issue ads.2 Issue advocacy ads are defined as ads sponsored by those other than the candidate that do not use any of the words designated by the Supreme Court to constitute express advocacy. The Supreme Court in its Buckley v. Valeo3 decision differentiated between express advocacy and issue advocacy, elaborating on what it meant by express advocacy:

communications containing wordssuch as: vote for, elect, cast your ballot for, Smith for Congress, vote against, defeat, reject.4 The Court stated that the scope of the Federal Election Campaign Act could only apply to such express advocacy communication.5 Communications without explicit exhortations are considered issue advocacy, which is not subject to federal election laws due to the protections afforded political expression under the First Amendment. While public debate continues on the role of issue advocacy advertising in American politics, little is known about the effects of such ads. Amid the heated debates, two important and enduring questions need to be answered: as a staple of contemporary political campaigns, do issue advocacy ads increase voters knowledge on candidate issue.

Issue advocacy ads

Issue advocacy ads (also known as interest advocacy ads or issue only ads) are communications intended to bring a problem to light. Groups that sponsor this form of communication are known by several names including: interest advocacy group, issue advocacy group, issue only group, or special interest group. The problem these groups bring to light can be a social or political issue. Interest advocacy was of primary importance in the United States around recent elections. Many groups were prohibited from expressly telling voters how they should vote.

Interest advocacy
Interest advocacy is act of making generalized communication regarding a public issue or problem without advocating voters to take a specific action at the election booth.

Identification of a pure "issue only ads" made by interest advocacy groups is difficult. Groups that sponsored messages needed to make it clear to a voter with reasonable intelligence, that the voter should cast their ballot in a manner the group wanted.

Keeping an advertisement issue only was important to groups like 501(c)(3) non-profits. Groups like this were subject to limits, or absolute prohibitions, on engaging in political activities. In 2006, the US Internal Revenue Service issued a fact sheet that stated groups could not endorse,

make public statements for, contribute to, or distribute statements prepared by others, since it would be "political intervention". However, at the same time, organizations still could participate in non-partisan voter education efforts, including registration and get-out-the-vote drives and issue advocacy.

Interest versus express advocacy

The bright-line test doesn't cover forms of communication that are indirect or debatable. Consider this message to voters:

If you like candidate X, you need to know he did Y.

In a communication like this, there is no mention about voting, however, the plain intention is to cast doubt on voters that supported candidate X. Campaigning like this is typically called negative campaigning, making attack ads, or making thinly veiled promotional ads on the behalf of the candidate.

Disclosure requirements
In 2010 the Citizens United case "expressly rejected the contention that election-law disclosure requirements are limited to express advocacy or its functional equivalent." Therefore, while Citizens United and a subsequent case effected certain spending limitations, it did not permit those making that spending from evading disclosure requirements by claiming they were only performing issue advocacy. Also in 2010 in a case known as Doe v. Reed, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to keep signatures upon a referendum from voters based upon a claim it violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lower courts are already applying these new standards to uphold a gamut of state disclosure laws ranging from ballot measures to candidate elections, and from express advocacy to issue advocacy.