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5
What can you learn about candidates from watching their ads?
KATHLEEN
HALL JAMIESON replies:
If
I had a choice between watching what you typically see in news about campaigns
and typical ads, I would watch the typical ad. And I'd watch it back to back,
so I'd watch both candidates advertising because in the give and take of advertising,
you're likely to get more policy content than you are in the typical newscast.
Now
that does not suggest that advertising is an ideal form, it rather suggests
that too much of the news about campaigns tells us about the tactics, and
the game, and the polls, and who's ahead and why, and too little about what
these people have promised and what these people have done.
So
when you look at the overall structure of much campaign news, you see a lot
of information that would help the person who's watching to become a campaign
consultant but not a whole lot helping that person become an informed voter.
In that sense advertising's more helpful than news a lot of times.
Ask JEFF GREENFIELD
Ask BOB SQUIER
Ask KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON