Answer:
Explanation:
OBJECTIVE
By viewing and analyzing selected presidential campaign advertisements, students will develop criteria
for evaluating what makes a political ad effective.
OVERVIEW
Political ads can communicate, persuade, and even entertain. A 30-second ad can be an effective tool
for convincing voters to support a candidate. Ads can target general or specific audiences, and they
can be effective or ineffective in different ways and for different reasons. They use emotion, persuasion,
factual claims, and cinematic style to influence voters. Critical analysis of political advertising entails
evaluating ads on all of these levels.
This lesson addresses topics that are examined in greater detail in other lesson plans on The Living
Room Candidate. Teachers wishing to explore any of the four levels of analysis discussed here more
deeply should consult the other lesson plans on the site:
• Playing on Emotions (emotion)
• The Use of Language in Political Ads (persuasion)
• Evaluating Information (factual claims)
• Developing Critical Analysis (cinematic style)PROCEDURES
Explain to students that a political ad, like the soap ad from the preliminary discussion above, uses
sounds, images, and factual claims to make arguments and to influence the way that voters feel. Ask
students to imagine that they are making an ad for a presidential candidate. They should consider the
same questions they answered in the preliminary discussion:
• Who would their audience be? Would it be a general audience, or would they want to target
a specific group?
• What would they want viewers to think about the candidate?
• What arguments would they want to make? How would they support those arguments?
• How would they want viewers to feel about the candidate?
• How would they want viewers to think and feel about the candidate’s opponent?
Tell students they will be watching a series of ads and evaluating their effectiveness. The first issue they
will focus on is intended audience. They will contrast an ad made for a general audience (“Surgeon”)
with an ad that targets a more specific audience (“Yes We Can,” which is geared towards a young
audience). Screen “Surgeon” (Clinton, 1996) and “Yes We Can” (Obama, 2008).
