Stereotypes In Presidential Campaigns

With television being a powerful source of persuasion, presidential candidates began to use it as a campaign tactic in 1952. After witnessing that it was a successful tactic they have continued to use it until the most recent presidential campaign in 2012. Over the course of all these years the American people have seen all kinds of presidential campaign ads. Some were plain and boring following the norm of having the candidate talk straight from a podium, while others took creativity to another level and did not even show the candidate in the add but just a little girl and images of the atomic bomb. The ads also differed in levels of positivism and negativism; some only focused on the good qualities of the candidate and the actions he would

For Nixon, the Republican candidate, there was not issue in making this topic the focus of his campaign thus he turned every question into a Cold War issue. Kennedy, the Democrat candidate, used a different strategy and attempted to take advantage of his youth by proclaiming in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, "We stand today on the edge of a new frontier." Television ads wise, Kennedy’s ads were varied in subject and style, mainly focusing on reaching out to the everyday American, including Hispanics with the Jackie Kennedy’s Spanish-language ad, and black people. In contrast, Nixon’s ads portrayed him in a formal office, speaking directly to the viewers, giving direct answers to questions asked by the American public, similar to “Eisenhower’s answers America”. Most importantly, his ads portrayed him as a strong, experienced leader able to stand up to the Communists. However, in the Kennedy-Nixon debate on September 26, Nixon’s strong leader image disappeared. He was wearing light-colored suit that blended into the background, and looked exhausted and pale while Kennedy looked vibrant and

This then, makes possible for the voters to really know the intentions of the candidates. For instance, during the election of 2012 both political parties focused on negative ads exposing the flaws of their counterparts. Barack Obama’s campaign argued that the president had taken action to rescue the economy and turn it in the right direction, while Mitt Romney’s campaign argued that the recovery was not happening fast enough. The Obama campaign focused on making the people see Mitt Romney as multi-millionaire whose plans favored the rich over the middle class. One of the ads that better accomplished Obama’s campaign focus was “47 Percent,” where they show a video recording of Romney saying that he did not care about 47% of the population, who were predestined to vote for Obama. With this video in circulation, Romney’s campaign, which tried to describe the Obama’s presidency as a failure, outlining high unemployment, rising deficits, and higher gas prices, was not as