What would be your media advertising strategy if you were employed by a candidate running for office for the U.S. Senate, trying to unseat a popular incumbent.?
Consider the following political campaign. Let’s say you were employed by a candidate running for office for the U.S. Senate, trying to unseat a popular incumbent. What would be your media advertising strategy? Write your thoughts down after reviewing the information below.Your candidate:Short, intellectual, intense (talks fast), college professor, politically radical (former SDS member [Students for a Democratic Society–a radical 1960s student group]), unknown in the state, has never held elective officeHas virtually no money ($200,000 in the bank and a beat-up green bus for transportation)It’s now spring of the election year, with the election in NovemberYour opponent:Conservative RepublicanHas a 70% approval rating in the stateFound by-polls to be the “most popular politician in the state”He even has a 61% approval rating among self-described liberals despite his very conservative voting record:Children’s Defense Fund game him a Children’s Defense Fund gave him a zero rating in 1989League of Conservation Voters rated him a “D” or “F” in all but two years in the 1980sHe has already raised $6 millionThe current support for the candidates:Your polling in February and June finds that your candidate is 20 points behind in the pollsWhat campaign ads would you run? Write down the advertising strategy that you would employ.For example:Now, here’s what happened in Minnesota in 1990:The incumbent was Republican Senator Rudy Boschwitz. With his large lead in the polls, he is acting as if his opponent doesn’t exist. His ads make no mention of him; for example, these are Boschwitz’s ads from June (county fairs are big in Minnesota): Boschwitz ad (http://bcove.video/2pYgU7C). In September, the Democratic challenger, Paul Wellstone, begins his campaign with these ads: (1) Fast-Paced Paul (http://bcove.video/2pJwuBf)(2) Faces (http://bcove.video/2p9vOCY)(3) Looking for Rudy (http://bcove.video/2p9jZNu)You may notice that the Wellstone ad, “Looking for Rudy,” draws heavily from the format of Michael Moore’s movie, Roger and Me. The Boschwitz campaign had been dragging its feet on the scheduling of debates. Within a few days of the running of this ad, Boschwitz had scheduled debates.
