Analyzing Political Campaign Commercials

In this activity, the students will analyze four political campaign commercials to understand some of the roles of political parties as well as how citizens make informed choices during elections. Two of the commercials are from the 2004 presidential election and concern the war on terror. The other two commercials are from the 1964 presidential election and concern the Cold War. The students will examine these commercials from two perspectives. One perspective is that of a presidential election campaign staff member, which will help the students to learn how campaign commercials are used as a tool to educate voters and to help candidates win elections. The students also will analyze the commercials from the perspective of a voter to further understand four ways that citizens make informed choices in elections: by separating facts from opinions, detecting bias, evaluating the source of their information and identifying propaganda.

For the assessment piece, the students will create their own campaign commercials for the 2012 presidential election. The commercials will reflect their understanding of the roles of political parties during elections and the ways in which voters make informed choices during elections.

Historical Background

Each of the four campaign commercials the students analyze during this lesson concerns the topic of war. The war on terror is the focus of the 2004 campaign commercials, whereas the earlier 1964 commercials address fears related to the Cold War. However, the tone in each set of commercials is very different.

In 2004, Republican George W. Bush ran for re-election against Democrat John Kerry. The presidential campaign largely focused on the role of the United States in the post-9/11 world, as it was the first presidential election following the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States. Since 9/11, the U.S. also had become involved militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the "Victory" commercial used in this lesson, President Bush focused on the leadership role of the United States as a protector of freedom and with respect to the spread of democracy, citing Iraq and Afghanistan as examples. As a part of his campaign, John Kerry highlighted his military experience during the Vietnam War in arguing that he was the more qualified candidate to lead the U.S. in its war on terror. The tone employed by both of the 2004 commercials used in this lesson is confident and optimistic.

In 1964, Democrat Lyndon Johnson campaigned for President against Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee. At the time of this campaign, the U.S. was in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In contrast to the 2004 campaign commercials examined by the students, both the Johnson and the Goldwater commercials utilized the emotion of fear. Goldwater targeted fear about the spread of communism, whereas Johnson used fear about the possibility of nuclear war by suggesting that it was more likely to become a reality should Goldwater be elected President.

Lesson Objective

What are two roles of political parties during elections? Two roles of political parties during elections are to educate the electorate about campaign issues and to help candidates win elections.

How do citizens make informed choices in elections? Four ways citizens make informed choices during elections are by (1) separating facts from opinions, (2) detecting bias, (3) evaluating the source of their information and (4) identifying propaganda.

Materials

Procedure

  1. Hook/Preview: The students will begin by identifying campaign commercials from the 2012 presidential election that they have seen this year and discussing what stands out to them in those commercials.
  2. The teacher will explain to the students that the class is going to take a more in-depth view of campaign commercials. This will be done by watching four campaign commercials – two from a recent presidential election and two others from another presidential election some years ago.
  3. The teacher will explain to the students that she wants for them to watch these commercials from two different perspectives – that of someone who is a part of a presidential election campaign staff and that of someone who will be voting in the 2012 presidential election.
  4. Before viewing the first set of commercials, the students and teacher will review information from previous discussions about the roles of political parties during elections and how voters make informed choices in elections.
  5. The teacher will divide the class in half. Within these two large groups, the students will sit in smaller groups of two to four students. The students will work together within these small groups to answer the questions posed on the worksheets that will accompany the commercials that will be shown in class.
  6. The teacher will inform the students that she first will show the two commercials from the more recent election. For the first commercial, one half of the class will analyze the commercial from the perspective of a presidential election campaign staff member. This half of the class will be looking for ways in which the commercial educates the electorate and helps the candidate win the election. The other half of the class will analyze the commercial from the perspective of a member of the electorate and will look for evidence of bias, the use of propaganda, statements of fact versus opinion and information about the source of information in the commercial.
  7. After viewing the first commercial, the students will discuss their answers to the questions they answered on their worksheets. For the second commercial from the same election, the two large groups will switch roles, so that each half of the class will have the opportunity to analyze commercials from different perspectives.
  8. All of the students will analyze both of the 1964 commercials from the perspective of a campaign staff member and from the perspective of a voter. The students will analyze the 1964 commercials in their small groups, with class discussion of their answers following each commercial.
  9. After the students have viewed all four commercials, they will answer the corroborating questions concerning both sets of commercials in their small groups, with class discussion to follow.

Assessment

The students will demonstrate mastery of the identified skills and an understanding of the content through the creation of their own campaign commercials as a part of a continuing unit on the political process at the national level of government focusing on the 2012 presidential election. The students will use the commercials as a tool to help their candidates win in a mock presidential election. The students will be required to demonstrate within their commercials that they understand that one role of a political party is to educate the electorate. They also will have to demonstrate their understanding of how citizens make informed decisions in elections by including and identifying facts, opinions and propaganda in their commercials. Along with the commercial, each student will submit a short written explanation of how he or she has met these requirements. The teacher will use the following four point formative assessment rubric when determining whether the students have demonstrated that they have mastered the identified skills and understand the content.

References

Maverick Media. “Victory,” Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc., 2004. Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008. www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004/victory (accessed July 24, 2012).

AKP and D Message and Media. “Strength,” Democratic National Committee, 2004. Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008. www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004/strength (accessed July 24, 2012).

Interpublic: Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff and Ryan, Inc. “We Will Bury You,” Republican National Committee, 1964. Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008. www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/we-will-bury-you (accessed July 24, 2012).

DDB: Aaron Erlich, Stan Lee, Sid Myers, and Tony Schwartz. “Peace Little Girl (Daisy),” Democratic National Committee, 1964. Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008. www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/peace-little-girl-daisy (accessed July 24, 2012).

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