One of my favorite things about campaigns is TV advertising. While we will not be discussing advertising in class for another few weeks, TV ads are the most direct way to relate the reading to real world political examples. Herrnson Chapter 4 describes the three types of campaigns that parties can conduct to assist candidates: independent, parallel, and coordinated campaigns.
One feature of independent campaigns, or independent expenditures, is that they often employ a different tone because by law, they must not coordinate with the candidates or the rest of the party. Here is an example of an independent expenditure TV ad paid for by the Republican Party in 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSZyZDvbtY&feature=related
Here is an example of a TV advertisement paid for by Citizens for the Republic, a 501(c)(4) organization:http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/23/group-updates-iconic-reagan-ad/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fwashwire%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+Washington+Wire%29
While these are just two examples, we will talk more in depth in a few weeks about why and how television ads work.
UPDATE:
Here are two articles that discuss the sometimes confusing world of campaign finance:
The first, from the Columbia Journalism Review: NYT on the ABC’s of 501(c)s
and the second, from the New York Times, referring to the recent Citizens United Supreme Court case:
Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit.
Finally, a summary from electionlawblog.org, on the Disclose Act, the legislative response by those unhappy with the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case: http://electionlawblog.org/archives/DISCLOSE%20Act_Sec-by-Sec.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment