Frank Luntz Does Democrats I came across this tonight and thought it was interesting. Republican pollster Frank Luntz apparently has been doing some work for the Democratic Party. Luntz recently conducted focus groups in Iowa and New Hampshire to size up the strengths and weaknesses of potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidates. The report, which is organized like the one we read earlier in the semester, can be found here (PDF file). It includes "10 Commandments for 2008 Democrats" (No. 3 "What Would Jesus Do? Tell me what YOU would do and leave Jesus out of it.") and a compilation of "Words That Work" and "Words That Don't Work" for each candidate.  ¶ 8:43 PM 0 Comments

  "Does This Ad Stink?" From Daily Kos...
A diarist from the liberal website Daily Kos solicits feedback on the Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate's television ad and outlines a series of reasons why the ad might be ineffective.
Daily Kos: Does This Ad Stink?  ¶ 7:38 PM 0 Comments

  Reading Response -- Post it here 1. Choose an ad analyzed by your partner in his or her paper.
2. Describe the ad (message, text, sound, etc) in one paragraph.
3. Explain why you believe it to be an effective/ineffective ad.
4. Post it here using the comments option below...don't forget the ad URL in your comment

Please try to get it done before 10 a.m. Thursday. I'm going to download the ads (including the embedded ones using this firefox extension) so that we can play them in class without having to worry about weak wireless signals.  ¶ 5:25 PM 18 Comments

  Political Ad Parody From the Daily Show Link here (will open WMV video file)

or...you can get it here (scroll down to "TDS and Paul Hackett"), including file in quicktime format (.mov)  ¶ 11:07 AM 0 Comments

  Upcoming Schedule T14 Spring Break
Th16 Spring Break

T21 Essay #2 first submission
Homework: Prepare Draft for Peer Review

Th23 Rough Draft for Peer Review due

T28 Read: TBA

Th30 Essay #2 final submission due

April

T4 Revision Workshop/Peer Review for essay 1 or 2
Th6 Revision of essay 1 or 2 due for final grade  ¶ 10:49 AM 0 Comments

  Thursday Office Hours Just a reminder that I'm holding special office hours Thursday from noon until 2pm. Drop by and discuss your rough draft...or your grade for essay #1.  ¶ 8:27 PM 0 Comments

  This Week... I'd like you to read this essay Tues. for discussion on Thurs. I handed out a paper copy last week, but you can also download a PDF at the link below:
Shanto Iyengar--"Speaking of Values: The Framing of American Politics"
http://pcl.stanford.edu/research/campaigns.html  ¶ 8:01 AM 0 Comments

  Follow up to today's class discussion April--You had some questions about finding an ad by the Kerry campaign that used fear or scare tactics to affect the audience...Thinking about this, it came to me that fear is only one side of the equation. It's not enough just to scare the audience; you also have to convice them that you can protect them the scary thing. John Kerry may not have amplified the threat of terrorism (the scary thing), but did he at least acknowledge the threat and attempt demonstrate that he could protect us in his ads?

Ewaen--You had a question about developing a criteria for determining what constitutes the effective use of patriotic imagary and pointed out that what you consider "cheesy"might work on someone else. Why is that? Might this have to do with your age? Are younger people more skeptical of patriotic appeals? How does one rouse the patriotism of a generation brought up to be skeptical of visual appeals. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree with this, but your point about a personal standard vs. the mass standard suggested that something like this may be occuring.


Kristi--You were having trouble finding ads...Here's the the website for the organization that sponsored the ad we watched in class. Unfortunately, it looks like the video links on the site are dead:
http://www.yourbodyyourlife.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLOK2MPIvG&b=193375

Of course, you can still get it at this site: http://www.theaapc.org/content/pollieawards/pastwinners/pastwinners2005.asp#television

This site, which was on the original list I posted, has at least a couple ads that might be of interest:
http://www.independentcourt.org/

I also know that NARAL (The National Abortion Rights Action League) invested in a series of ads to oppose the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. They don't have them posted on their website, but you can find some low-res versions here:
http://factcheck.org/article342.html
http://factcheck.org/article340.html

You won't find any video ads here (http://www.protectchoice.org/index.htm), but you will find an activist website dedicated to developing new ways of educating young women about reproductive health. Lot's of "framing" to be found on the site, and I even found the term "reframing" in the executive summary of this report: http://www.protectchoice.org/new_research.htm

Balcony Films (http://www.balconyfilms.com/home.htm) has two ads for planned parenthood on their site, including this long-form ad starring Helen Hunt (and note the title of the soundtrack by Black Eyed Peas):
http://www.balconyfilms.com/PnB_films.htm

Shorter, kind of boring one here:
http://www.balconyfilms.com/PnB_ads.htm

This company has two planned parenthood ads. The first is from 2000, I think...The second is probably from '02:
http://www.lhkkmedia.com/portfolio.html

Jessica and Michelle--Did you notice the "Bilingual or Foriegn Language" Category on the Pollie Awards Page?
http://www.theaapc.org/content/pollieawards/pastwinners/pastwinners2005.asp#television
also check the link for '02 or '03 listed in the initial link post  ¶ 6:22 PM 2 Comments

  Directions for topic proposal due tomorrow I'm looking for 1-2 paragraphs in which you explain the topic you're interested in exploring, why you've chosen it, and why it's relevant to a theme we've discussed in class. You should further identify the ads you plan on analyzing and give me rough idea of the claim you're going to make. If you don't have a claim at this point, you should at least have a question that can direct you toward a claim. If you have any questions, please contact me.
bc  ¶ 12:23 PM 0 Comments