1.近年來政治廣告顯然已經在競選活動中發揮著越來越重要的作用，在民主國家,如美國。本文的目的是展示一些政治廣告的優點和缺點,但主要關注的是缺點。多年來，政治候選人使用廣告來吸引選票，但是已經隨著社會和技術的發展改變了。過去的候選人在街上走來走去,并在當地政治大廳演講。自20世紀50年代以來,演講已經成為專業廣告機構的政治問題，越來越多地利用引入更多科學的市場研究和戰略營銷策略來發展自己。可用的技術大大增加營銷利潤,因此會有更多的技術被用于政治活動。 

2.政治廣告有許多優點和缺點。通常,表達的負面看法比一個積極的觀點的幾率更大。消極的觀點為政治操縱提供了邪惡的影響。但是一個優勢的廣告在發布過程中有著積極的影響，它為政治運動提供了一個機會和平臺政策的準確信息。在當今社會人們很少有時間研究候選人。廣告的關鍵就是非常緊迫地通知關于選民和活動平臺的問題。馬修·麥卡利斯特強烈要表達的就是民主取決于知情的公民。

3.今天的技術使得政治信息在更短的時間內發給更多的群眾。快節奏的運動信息創造了許多不同版本的信息。政治廣告的另一個優點是就是讓選民有機會看到大多數不同版本的信息和視圖。選民應該有權利選擇他們了解不同版本之間的信息并且辨別是真的還是假的。沒有政治廣告選民不會了解候選人并且做出自己的決定.

 

In recent years political advertising has clearly been playing an increasingly important role in election campaigns in democratic countries such as the United States.  The purpose of this paper is to show some of the advantages and disadvantages of political advertising, but will primarily focus on the disadvantages.  Over the years the type of advertising used by political candidates to attract votes has changed as the society and technology has changed. In the past candidates  concentrated on personal selling by getting out and meeting people in the streets and making political speeches in local halls. Since the 1950s, campaigns have become more planned and professional with advertising agencies and political consultants increasingly being utilized introducing more scientific market research and strategic marketing strategies.  There has been a huge increase in the amount of technology available to marketing strategists, and therefore there is also more technology being utilized in political campaigns.  

 

There are many advantages and disadvantages for advertising in politics.  Often, a negative view of the issue is expressed to a greater extent than a positive view.   The negative views discuss the evil affects of political manipulation, and fear the advantages it brings to more wealthy parties.  One advantage of advertising and the media in political campaigns offers an opportunity to distribute positive, accurate information about platform policies.  In today’s society people have less initiative and time to research candidates on their own.  Advertising about the critical issues is very important to inform the voters about the issues and campaign platforms. Mathew P. McAllister’s writing strongly expresses that democracy depends on informed citizens.

 

The technology available today makes it less difficult to distribute political information to larger audiences in shorter periods of time.  The fast paced movement of information creates many different versions of information available to the people.  Another advantage of political advertising is that is gives the voters a chance to see most of the different versions and views available.  Voters should have a right to chose between different versions of what they believe is true.  Without political advertising the voters would not be as informed about versions to make their own decisions about a candidate.

 

Over the past few decades the ways in which political candidates solicit the public vote have changed drastically.  In the past, coverage of political candidates was largely composed of news stories and interviews by experienced and respected journalists.  In today's campaigns corporate media plays a larger role than ever before. Today’s world puts increasing demands on journalists including tight deadlines and fewer resources available for their use.  This environment often leads to respectable journalists using words around pictures that may be sent to them from promoters of certain political campaigns.  These pictures may be deceiving and may only benefit the sending party, and diminish the image of the opposing party.   Competition among television and radio stations, and newspaper companies is continuously increasing.  This forces the media to accept certain stories strictly because of the attention-getting headline. 
 

Although advertising does offer a great opportunity for political campaigns to express their views to the voters, it is not often used in a positive way.  In Today’s society negative advertisements occur more often than positive ones.  A huge disadvantage of political advertising is that many political parties and candidates promote advertisements against their opponent(s), which is usually not based on actual platforms, but on the opposing candidate’s character.    Voters are pushed to vote for the less corrupt candidate by what they believe are true claims instead of voting for the best based on objective positive information.  There are exceptions to this, but fewer as the years go by.

 

It can be proven obvious that candidates need to be financially well off to be successful in their campaigning.  Another disadvantage is that allowing political advertising in larger amounts, society is creating less of an opportunity for possible candidates that may not be wealthy.  Regardless of how someone may stand on important issues they may not have the finances to properly distribute their views to the voters.  Possible candidates with less money are easy targets for negative advertising.  The wealthier opponents will have greater resources available to them to create advertisements diminishing a candidate’s traits.  The ability to crush another’s public character is more easily accomplished by those that have more money to invest in such activities.    

 

One of the most influential forms of media is the television.  The power of televised advertising is able to bring new political ideas to people who have not previously experienced them.    This type of media is a very strong and powerful tool.  The images that can be used on the television can be very effective in presenting ideas and issues accurately. 

 

 An interesting fact: one in four people surveyed in a recent TV Guide poll said that they would not give up watching television for one million dollars.  Television creates an easy way for the public to receive information about the political campaigns.  This creates a negative view of political advertising because many people are too busy to do their own research, and promotes the idea of people taking what they receive through the media as truth with no doubts.  Even those that may doubt information dispersed through the media probably will not take the time to analyze the issue further.  

 

Another disadvantage of political advertising is that political commercials are produced by the same agencies that produce corporate commercials. These allow the politicians to completely control what images are used on the television.  Exaggeration and non-factual information are popular forms of persuasion used in this form of advertising.  Utilizing these marketing agencies provides opportunities for the candidates to research and reach target audiences with greater efficiency.  The candidates with more financial resources will be able to use the research and acquired knowledge of these agencies to distribute their campaign information to specific groups based on their individual wants and needs.  This is obviously an unfair disadvantage to those candidates with less money available to them.

 

The idea of an advertising campaign based on factual positive knowledge of the issues would be very acceptable.  The existing media technology available could be very beneficial to that cause.  Unfortunately our resources are not always used in the most positive and truthful manner.  This trend will most likely continue without change in the near future.  If their vote is truly important to them the voters should take more responsibility to spend time researching the views of the candidates.

 

Bibliography:

 

McAllister, Mathew P., The Commercialization of American Culture, Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks: 1996.

 

University of Iowa Department of Communications Studies LINKS to Communications Studies, Political Advertising Articles and Resources.