The Science of Political Advertising APA

3/18/21

Dear Editor,

As I was reading the article, The Science of Political Advertising, I wanted to reach out
and share my views with you and points that I found important and which I would like
to elaborate on. As a concerned young voter, I want to understand the role of big money
and how advertising has many subtopics that circle back and connect to one another as
well. There are ads that are effective due to the way information is shared within an ad
which then will stick in an individual’s brain because of the way it stands out using
different psychological techniques that these candidates and their teams study. There
are many advertisements that are shown on different media platforms everyday and it is
important that a candidate is able to have many individuals receive their ads and
actually have those individuals remember them. It is important to be able to
communicate with voters because you can figure out what is valued in the viewer's
perspective and then target your campaign around those points. So when does big
money advertising come into play?

In 2012, campaigns spent about $3 billion dollars in television ads while money is
required for a candidate to be successful, it does not guarantee success. Lack of funds
can shut out less qualified candidates, but wealth does not guarantee that the
candidate's message will be received liked by voters. The amount of money spent on a
campaign will influence which candidates run. Early money, or money raised before the
primary, is important in this. Yes, a lot of money can be used to scare off opponents, and
money can be most effective in competitive races. All that extra spending of the money
goes into additional advertising. It means more information about the candidates and
issues for voters, increased interest in the campaign and increased voter turnout. That’s
good for democracy. Focusing on the evils of money diminishes the importance of other
things that may help or crush a candidate. It’s easy to see a correlation between winning
and fundraising because money flows to likely winners and competitive races. 5.3
Trillion display ads are shown online each year. 31% of emotional content and 16% of
rational content are the advertising campaigns that did well. Overall, the most recurring
themes for sentimental ads are pride, love, unique achievement, man’s empathy,
loneliness and friendships, and memories.
Negative ads are actually effective when it comes to individuals remembering what
happened in the ad and what it was about. If things like drugs, alcohol, and violence are
used, it is more likely to stand out in a person’s mind. Ads that were surrounded by
children with happy faces and a happy community were not as remembered as the
“negative” ads. There was a reduced amount of viewer interest when positive ads were
being played. Fear ads make people more aware and more attentive to what is being
discussed and targeted within the ad. Subliminal messages are also used to grab the
viewer's attention. Words like RATS were used as an example by the ad creator Alex
Castellanos, to unconsciously sway voters in a certain direction. Negative ads have been
shown overall to create a more effective outcome in grabbing the viewers attention and
swaying them into a certain direction for even feeding them information that they
wouldn’t have known otherwise.

In conclusion, big money doesn’t have as big a role as the actual content of an ad being
produced. Individuals must remember the ad based on components that describe a
“negative ad”. The psychology behind what makes an ad effective to a person’s mind in
remembering the ad itself and the content being shared is the attention grabber in the
start of the ad. If a campaign is able to create an ad that uses darker themes within it
rather than using an upbeat and happier theme, it tends to stick into the mind better
and more effectively. Doing more research about how to target an audience in a way that
will stick out to them and with them is more effective than using big money as a way to
reach your ad out to more and more people, and them not grasping the information that
you share within your ad. Thank you for your time in reading my letter to you.

Sincerely,

Sara Hamri

Central York High School

22shamri@cypanthers.org
717-858-7681