Introduction
Political campaigns significantly depend on the advertisement to sell their agendas to gain popularity from the citizens. Therefore, due to the high competition in the presidential race, presidential candidates are forced to adopt effective advertising channels that will guarantee them to win. The United States presidential candidates have been using various styles and channels of advertising, and with time, the advertisement channels and styles have advanced. This paper will analyze channels and styles of advertising that are used in presidential campaigns from the 1950s to date.
The presidential campaigns competition in the United States has always been between the Republicans and the Democrats. In the 1950s, paid political announcements were prevalently used in campaigns. The republicans mostly used paid political announcement films that were used for campaigning (OrrvilleOSUfan, 2017). For instance, in 1952 and 1956, Eisenhower used paid political announcements and films that were designed in an interrogative manner and documentary praising himself by showcasing his abilities and achievements. The democrats during this period through Adlai Stevenson used videos specifically cartoon videos to advertise their candidate in 1952 (OrrvilleOSUfan, 2017). They also used songs through a popular musician who would sing songs praising the candidate. In 1956, the democrats used videos exploiting the style of double-talk forum in the form of the cartoon to advertise their candidate. In both of them, their adverts were between half a minute and a minute in length.
In the 1960s, John Kennedy, the presidential candidate for the Democrats used paid political announcements in the form of moving pictures. He adopted the style of exposing the incompetency of his competitor Nixon in these videos. He also used praise songs to advertise himself to the people (OrrvilleOSUfan, 2017). The republicans used political broadcast on televisions and videos during this period. In the 1970s, the republicans used biographies, videos, and TV broadcasting to advertise. The democrats also used paid television broadcasting and videos. In the 1980s up to 2000s, both the democrats and the republicans used paid television and video advertisements (OrrvilleOSUfan, 2017). In the 2010s to date, the use of social media to advertise chipped in as all candidates exploited it along with other channels such as print media, radio broadcast, paid television broadcast, and video adverts.
Essentially, the presidential campaign advertisement has been gradually changing while some channels and styles of advertisement have remained. The use of videos in advertising is still being used up to date. The used of advertising is similar, but the difference has been noted over time in terms of quality and length of videos for advertisement. With time, the quality and creativity of videos have improved transforming video advertisement from black and white to HD colored videos (OrrvilleOSUfan, 2017). The length of the video began to increase from the 1990s and significantly increased in 2000s as political campaign videos ended up being unlimited in length. The use of a biography style of advertising in the 1970s is still similar to date. Paid television broadcasting is similar all through these periods. Another similarity portrayed in the style of advertising is the use of videos accompanied by texts in the advertisement. The use of rhetorical statements is similar all through this time.
Conclusion
A big difference from early political campaigns and those that happen today is that currently. Presidential campaigns use various channels such as print media, radio broadcast, and also social media to advertise themselves. Another difference that can be noted is the use of posters and banners in advertising that is currently being used, which was not available in the past. From this analysis, it is evident that the channels and styles of presidential campaign have significantly transformed. However, with time, some similarities were maintained while in some channels of advertising changes occurred, and also other advertising channels were introduced.