{"id":228491,"date":"2020-10-04T07:46:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T11:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=228491"},"modified":"2020-10-04T07:46:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T11:46:31","slug":"political-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/world\/usa\/political-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Political ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

In politics, the use of TV as a means of impacting large audiences has been a mechanism of increasing importance, starting with the electoral campaign of Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, and especially of John F. Kennedy in 1961, the first to used persuasion techniques based on the then current communication models, especially those relating to behaviorism.<\/span><\/p>\n

One could study step by step, as has been done, the development of sophisticated communication mechanisms that have resulted in what Leslie Janka\u2014founder of the Council for American-Saudi Dialogue, after having served in the State Department under Henry Kissinger\u2014codified in a lapidary phrase like \u201cthe displacement of the substance by the image.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The only thing left then is to evoke at this point Ronald Reagan, that master of the image, because they knew how to surround him, before and after the elections, with a team led by golden boy Michael Deaver, who modulated a public strategy in which the president should have the initiative in front of the media, as Mark Herstgaard has insuperably studied in a classic book: <\/span>On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/a> This made possible, to a large extent, the conversion of a surrogate actor into a charismatic figure who obtained many benefits from the Cold War and extrapolated expressions from the Bible to administrative discourse: that \u201cevil empire\u201d to designate the Soviet Union, exercise continued by George W. Bush\u2019s advisers after September 11, by naming several targeted countries as \u201cthe axis of evil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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President Ronald Reagan. Photo: Medium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the TV is turned on right now, it would highlight the use of political ads that borrow from commercials according to the same consumer persuasion mechanisms, a fact that many critics, not necessarily liberals, attribute to the idea that politics\u2015including presidential elections\u2015are a lucrative activity more destined to sell figures like Fords or McDonald\u2019s. They are, by definition, simple, repetitive messages, with a clear focus and a clear idea that, therefore, does not give rise to interpretations or polysemies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the importance of the Hispanic\/Latino population in these elections, and particularly in Florida, television directed at this population sector has been and will be the object of both teams, especially during this final phase. Not even the most foresighted of pioneers would have imagined it when those Mexican territories were annexed in the 19th century. Since the presidential elections that brought William Clinton to executive power, the use of Spanish has been growing in the race for the White House, not only through the use of advertisements that try to persuade the recipient with the reasons why he should vote for Democrats or Republicans, but also in direct verbal addresses of the candidates on television and radio networks in Spanish.<\/span><\/p>\n

A summary review of the current Republican campaign shows that it has decided to design its ads based on four fundamental points: a) Joe Biden\u2019s socialism\/communism, b) that he would suppress funds for the Police, c) his policy of raising voters\u2019 taxes and d) his advanced age and mental problems, which would prevent him from occupying the position, issues that certainly are the hard nuclei of the president\u2019s speech. Indeed, for a brief sample button, recently, during a rally in Vandalia, <\/span>Ohio<\/span><\/a>, Trump insisted on his rival\u2019s socialism\/communism, one of the most repeated constructions based on the impact of this discourse on a culture long marked by the Cold War. And for an emotional dimension in the recipients.<\/span><\/p>\n