Political Advertisements and Advertising the World - Coursework Example

Introduction In recent years, political advertisements have evolved to keep up with the drastic changes that shape our society. As with the rest, the changes kept up to match and to conform with the rapid technological advancement that for now almost dictates the lifestyle and even the perception of the target audience and consumers. Just like commercial businesses’ brands and products, politicians sought all the possible avenues, not just the mainstream or the conventional advertising methods but also the up and rising alternatives which are often innovative and ingenious. All these with only one goal in mind – to reach out to their target audience, get their message across and gain approval and trust to be able to sway individual and public opinion to their political causes and to their advantages. In this age and generation, the race of the political competitors has progressed in utilizing all forms of multimedia – from the traditional media: print, radio and TV, they have moved the information dissemination and the political campaign to the World Wide Web through emails, webpages, online discussion groups and chatgroups or the social media. Marchese (2007) as quoted by Wright and Hinson (2009, p 3) put forward that the differences are “not the media itself, but the system of discovery, distribution, consumption and conversation surrounding the media”. Although another significant aspect of social media is its relative little or no cost compared with traditional media even if both could reach any desired market (Wright and Hinson, 2009, p 3). And last year during the US presidential elections, they broke through the social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and the rest armed with the message that they want to convey to their citizens and target electorate. Many analysts and experts had accepted that the success of the campaign was the successful integration of social media with the traditional media (Wright and Hinson, 2009, p 6-7). With the evolution of the political advertising methods, some politicians also recognized the need to alter their images to conform to the generation that utilizes these technological innovations. Physical looks as well as political fashion sense have also been revamped to capture the attention and the imagination of the audience. The changes have become imperative for those who want to be noticed in a crowd of expected drabness and rise above the competition. I. Harnessing New Technology As business recognize the potential and reap the benefits of the internet as an additional medium in communicating to the audience and dissemination information to the target consumers, the World Wide Web became the haven of advertisements of anything and everything under the sun that could be sold or offered to the vast market which suddenly became global or worldwide. As compared with the tri-media or print, TV and radio, the tools of communication in the internet are numerous and varied. Others set up websites to showcase their products or services while others carried the same concept of direct mailing, this time through the email service. Some joined online discussion groups and chatgroups while other posted banners on high traffic websites. Up until this time, more and more ways of advertising in the internet are discovered or produced by innovative and ingenious individuals. As politics is the same with business except that in commerce, a product or service is marketed while with the politician, it is the image of the candidate that is being upheld and ‘sold’ to the voters through proper public relations of the groups behind the politicians campaign, it was not before long when the politicians took to the internet for their political and campaign advertisements. As proof to this rising usage of new technology by the politicians in their campaigns, the UK Tories scored a first in the United Kingdom as they launched their 40-seconder advertisement in Spotify, a rapidly growing peer-to-peer music sharing service. The ad will run only for a week but there are speculations and assumptions that as the general elections scheduled for next year, UK’s conservative party will increase its usage of the service of the said site. This move was said to target the techie-savvy youth segment of its citizens (Bryant, 2009). As UK prohibits running political ad campaign in TV and radio, airing this advertisement is legitimate and does not break any rules as it does not fit into any category of the prohibited category (Sweney, 2009). Last year during the US presidential elections, one of the intriguing but innovative move by US president Barack Obama was the use of the social networking site Facebook to reach out to what it termed its captive audience, the youth. The report stated that as the team of Obama started their Facebook account early in the campaign, they were able to generate 2 million supporters. His political adversary for the highest seat in the United States, John McCain followed suit and was able to build for himself about 600,000 supporters (Golodryga, 2008). Facebook, for its part has prepared the stage for these politicians by incorporating them in their services and providing a forum for their need, for a fee. Politicians, seeing the advantage jumped in and the people behind Facebook found themselves overwhelmed with demand for the said service. “Politicians who purchase advertising space on the site will be able to send mass messages to supporters (Grynbaum, 2006)” However as early as 2006, some politicians in the US have realized the power of this social networking site as an integral cog in their political campaign. US Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts even made it a point to visit Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto in his bid to harness the new technology on political campaigning or cyber campaigning and hoping to reach out to the youth, who composes the majority subscribers of the service (Grynbaum, 2006). A supposedly presidential hopeful for the 2008 US presidential elections, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana also jumped in this up and coming campaigning avenue and projected himself an image in Facebook that would have been acceptable to the many subscribers of the social networking site who he hoped would eventually support his political ambition and see him through the peak of his political career (Grynbaum, 2006). . But then, the advantages of harnessing this medium are without its counterpart disadvantages. As one’s image of his/her persona is one of the focuses of Facebook, care must be exercised in building one’s image that will be projected. Michael Grynbaum (2006), in this column in Boston Globe stated that, “To reach a young audience, however, candidates may have to shed their middle-aged milieu and communicate in the proper Facebook manner. That means listing turn-ons and turnoffs, posting candid photos, and ‘friending’ college students across the country by listing them on the site.” However, the possibility that someone within the site could destroy this image which could eventually lead to the damage to the political career of the candidate is also high. In the same manner that reaching out to the mass audience is easy and message communications is fast, negative publicity or revelations of the flaws in the image built could be communicated as easy and as fast. Over time, as more and more politicians would harness other avenues to their campaigning ease and advantage, other pros and cons will still surface and will be recognized which will dictate the future of these new methods – whether they are worthwhile or not. In the UK, the ban on TV and radio might be extended to accommodate other media such as the internet if the same objective for banning TV and radio has been crossed by the ever expanding cyberspace. On the other hand, the threat of the concept of the politician’s invading the social networking service is their burgeoning number which could be looked at as a nuisance or an irritation to the subscribers. This could lead to audience’s selectivity towards the communication efforts or information or information overload or even invasion to their privacy (Ongkiko and Flor, 1998, p 103-119). When this group of politicians became too many, it would not become novelty and would cease to be intriguing to the members. The message that they continue to send and distribute to the subscribers may be treated as the annoying spam, the same way in the email or could be blocked by specific software the same as blocking pop ups and the others. II. Image and Publicity Image is very important to the politicians if not the single most important thing to him/her. Sung and Yang (2008, p 360) quoted Dichter (1985) who referred to image as “the total impression an entity makes on the minds of others” and Kotler and Andreassen (1996) defined image as “the sum of beliefs, attitudes, stereotypes, ideas, relevant behaviours, or impressions that a person holds regarding an object, person, or organization”. Thus, good or excellent image would spell the political career success while tainted image could spell the downfall of one’s political career. That’s why advertising the politician’s image or what is called publicity or public relations is a very important tool of the politician. Public relations is to “offer a positive image (Go, 1996, p 82)” and “includes ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image (McNamara, 2008)”. Together with the technological breakthroughs that the world has gone through in the last decades, a revamped on the perception has also taken place. Because the changes and innovations has brought a perception being new, the old are relegated to a lower status on their way to obsolescence. It is in this concept that even the public image of the politicians needed a makeover. Thus, the revolution in terms of public image including fashion sense of those who hold office in the government is also slowly changing. In recent years, a new trend is emerging. When President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia appeared before his countrymen and declared that he was to become their next president, he was wearing jeans (Morris, 2008). US President Barack Obama was also often seen in his dressed down fashion. Another article that appeared in yahoo news has shown both presidents wearing jeans thus jeans has become a new symbol of a different kind of image for public servants. This trend could be said to be parallel with the evolution in advertisement as the concept behind them are almost equal. The apparent dressing down of the people in high office are somehow the way of communicating with their target audience that they are the ‘new’. The world is continuously changing and evolving including almost everything in it and they too have evolved. For President Obama, the image he is projecting including his choice of fashion conveys his mantra of change. He was replacing the old and letting the new emerge. To complete the package of his change battle cry, he even included the revamped on the expected and long held proper wardrobe for a world leader. Dressing in jeans is also part of the politician’s bid to reach out to the youth, in consonance with their bid for their attention when they moved their political campaign into the lair of this segment of the society–the internet and all the way into their social networking sites. As jeans are usually the wardrobe of the young, it has also become symbol of being carefree and dynamic. In US Senator Kerry’s visit to the Facebook headquarters, it was reported that he looked out of sync in his suit and tie among “the sites young, casually dressed staff (Grynbaum, 2006)”. Apart from US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev, other high ranking officials and world leaders are following suit which include France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, Afghanistans Hamid Karzai, Condoleeza Rice, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among others (Morris, 2008). This change is all about their ‘new’ image and the message they want to convey to their public. It is all about introducing who they are and what they are capable of doing for their countrymen and for the world (Binkley, 2009). The advantage and disadvantage of this emerging hip and casual fashion among world leaders (and even business executives) depend on the perception of the public. The traditional and conservative might frown and declare that they are doing a great disservice to their positions because of their fashion sense. They could argue that they are shedding the supposed respect that is attributed to the formal attire. For the youth, it could go both ways. It would depend on the connection that they would notice between the new image and with what the politician really represent. For the fashion industry, it could be the breakthrough of a new era or a destruction of the traditional and conventional. The future of this fashion trend with the world leaders could not be predicted properly as it would completely rely on how well these leaders handle the upholding of their public image, in the eyes of their electorate and in the eyes of the world. But one thing is certain, these politicians may have revolutionized even their fashion sense so that they can project themselves and advertise who they are to the public but everything will all boil down to the strong and positive public image that they have and they will retain and maintain. Conclusion So much has changed in the world in the last few decades because of the technological breakthroughs that the world has seen and experienced. Most of the changes emerged from the invention and discovery of new methods and devices in communications. Because of this, even advertising and public relations of politicians were compelled to jump in and be part of the global evolution. These changes involved seeking innovative ways to communicate to the target audience and get the message across just to convince the public about their ideas and platforms of government. The internet has become the venue of the race of these politicians in their bid to get public attention and claim their trust. Recognizing that communication is influenced by physical and social settings, they adopted and developed a more natural and informal style, not only through the social media as an avenue to reach out but also in their fashion statements (Start and Tamayo, 1995, p 57-60). As a big part of the segment are the youth, these politicians have revolutionized their fashion sense to conform and be accepted by this distrusting segment of society just to be included in their networks and be trusted with their votes. After everything is said and done by the politicians in their public relations and self advertisements, after they have tried desperately to build an image that would be acceptable to more segments of the society, after the votes have been cast during election, it would be the reign and leadership of these political leaders that would determine the future of the methods they have utilized in advertising and the trends they have stirred in fashion – if the changes have been worthwhile or not. References Binkley, Christina. “The Relentless Rise of Power Jeans”. Wall Street Journal. 29 October 2009. 22 November 2009. Bryant, Martin. “UK Conservative Party to Launch Spotify Campaign. The Next Web. 16 October 2009. 22 November 2009. < http://thenextweb.com/europe/ 2009/10/16/uk-conservative-party-launch-spotify-ad-campaign/> Go, Josiah. Marketing 101: An A to Z Quick Guide. Makati, Phils. 1994. Golodryga, Bianna. “Facebook Changes Dynamics of Race”. 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Stacks, Don W. and David Michaelson. “Exploring the Comparative Communications Effectiveness of Advertising and Public Relations: A Replication and Extension of Prior Experiments”. Public Relations Journal Vol. 3, No. 3 (2009). 1A+. 04 Dec 2009. . Stark, Peter B. and Michelle Tamayo. The Confident Leader. Amherst, MA. HRD Press Inc. 1995. Sung, Minjung and Sung-Un Yang. “Toward the Model of University Image: The Influence of Brand Personality, External Prestige, and Reputation”, Journal of Public Relations Research. 20: 4, 357-376. Sweney, Mark. “Tories to Launch Spotify Ad Campaign”. Guardian.co.uk. 16 October 2009. 22 November 2009. Swarts, John. “More Marketers Use Social Networking To Reach Customers”. USA today. 27 August 2009. 22 November 2009. Wright, Don K. and Michelle Drifka Hinson. “Examining How Public Relations Practitioners Actually Are Using Social Media”. Public Relations Journal Vol. 3, No. 3 (2009). 1A+. 04 Dec 2009. . Read More