Political Advertising

A candidate is today’s day and age has to do what they can in order to reach out to the masses on their political standings. Standings such as political affiliation, health care, taxes or rights of marriage, all of which in order to achieve the ultimate of goal of being elected, must first convince the majority that he or she is right person to represent the constituents. How do political candidates get their name out so the people can listen? The answer to that question is political advertising. Political advertising is the fundamental reason why candidates get elected because in order to get elected by constituents, candidates must first gain name recognition. Name recognition has been around since the days that elections first took place. Political adversaries campaigning against one another had to convince the voters to not only vote, but vote for the name. The candidates spread the name through uses of parties, debates, charities, anything that would improve their image to the masses. The power of the name regardless whether the opponent is more capable than the other has had influence on our nation’s political development. Today’s day and age still represents the power of the name and how far a candidate can move forth because of masses recognizing the name.

In class we watched the documentary film directed by Nick Popper, “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” The film as seen in class represents all that can be achieved by name recognition. Russ Carnahan a name that goes back generations in politics in the state of Missouri is the power house candidate because of the name. Jeff Smith a candidate with no political past experience is running for a seat in the House of Representatives against the political royalty Carnahan. The documentary shows the struggles Jeff Smith must do in order to get his name recognized to the constituents. Smith who is representing the “average Joe” meaning; a man of correlation to the majority of the American people is running against political royalty that has already won three fourths of the battle. The battle is of course name recognition and when your mother already has a seat in the Senate along with continuous connections the campaigns seems to have already been taken care of. This is the representation of Russ Carnahan’s campaign, as seen in the film the man is represented as a good human being, but not a strong political candidate that can fulfill the needs of his constituents. Carnahan along with majority of those interviewed throughout the documentary believed that he would have no problem achieving the seat because the opposition did not have the strong political name to back the campaign. Jeff Smith a name of the “average Joe” must work tirelessly with an inexperienced staff in order to gain some sort of name recognition. His strategy for his campaign is known as a “grass root” strategy in which he will literally meet and greet anyone he can in order to achieve a vote. Smith’s grass root strategy y was broken down into different elements in order to get is name out to the people. The first was door to door, this was Jeff Smith literally going door to door meeting with average people in order figure out what the people want. The next was coffees, this surprised me I didn’t realized the social relevancy coffee had until this film and the success of Jeff Smith. Coffee provided social gatherings in which Jeff Smith would attend and he would talk about his political standings to people he knew which led to conversations with people whom he didn’t know. It was a rippling effect if you will; one drop creates a small ripple only leading to a much larger one. The third is kids, kids have always had the reflection of innocence and political candidates use them for a sense of relation to the people. From personal experience winning kids over usually means the parents are going to like you because kids are usually the reflection of what the parents truly love. The fourth is yard signs, like any other candidate yard signs are displayed anywhere and everywhere. This is a reflection who the person is particularly voting for, but it also to show the rest of society who this person is. Yard signs during campaigns cover towns always reminding those who haven’t voted yet who the candidates are. Each element of his campaign was all towards one goal and that goal was to achieve the name status to that of his opponent.

The campaign of Jeff Smith throughout the movie was motivated by hard work and a method that many Americans thought dead. The “grass root” campaign usually affiliates with candidates that have to work from the ground up, not one that past relatives has already built. The campaign involved more than Jeff Smith and Russ Carnahan, but the other candidates lacked the name or the drive, leaving Jeff Smith a strong chance in winning the seat in the House of Representatives. The campaign began to funnel close to election date and opposition’s strategies began to change. Russ Carnahan began to feel the heat and shifted to an attack campaign to belittle Smith. The attack campaign moved forth with sexual references and the lack of experience Jeff Smith has in politics. Furthermore Carnahan counter acted his attack campaign with an advocacy ad showing his children and how good of a father he is. The money for this ad which aired on television was provided by family wealth and family connections. The film talks about Russ Carnahan’s mothers influence on the campaign providing funds for television ads for an election to the House of Representatives. This does not usually happen since the election of the House does not reach this magnitude, but on this occasion circumstances were different. The name of the Carnahan’s could not be overthrown by an “average Joe” for the royalty line would be cut and the name would lose strength. This threat probably caused Mrs. Carnahan to give her son a little advantage because to this day most Americans receive their political information through television. The power the media has over this nation is apparent in every presidential election, it even is apparent for elections to the House. Shortly after the advocacy ad was ran the Election Day came. Jeff Smith won the election, but did not win the overall majority of voters and therefore lost the campaign.

The power of name recognition can reached back since our nation’s second president John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams our nation’s sixth president. Each state most likely has a powerhouse political royalty family such as the Carnahan’s in Missouri. The only question is, is that is it right for someone to be elected because of their name? Should a man be elected simply because of his wealth and connections or should a man be elected for the good of the future? These questions can only be answered by the voters and what they want for the future. They can only be answered by those who look past the power of name and look forward to the good of the future.