Dr. Janet McMullen 

Last Updated:  10/30/2002

1.    Who is the target audience for this commercial?  (Be specific: Think Niches)

• How do you know?  What in the text tells you who the audience is?

2.    What is the political ad trying to sell?  An idea? A candidate? A specific message?  If so, what?

3.     How does the political commercial "sell" the message?

• Production Elements:
  • Visual:
    
  • Verbal:
• Appeals:   (Logical? Emotional? Which specific appeals are used?)
  
• Is it negative or positive? (or a combination)
  • Why was that approach taken?
    

4.    What facts are being used?

• Is the source identified?
• Where did the source get the facts?
• Is the relationship between the information and the voter made clear?
• How is that accomplished?

5.    Is the ad effective?

• Did it do what it tried to do?
• How was that accomplished?
  

6.    Does it provide useful information to the voters?

• What information?
• Why is it important?

7.   What commercial format was employed?

8.   Was a narrative used? 

• If so, how was it developed? 
• Who was the protagonist? 
• The antagonist?

9.   How was repetition used?  What images or phrases? How often?

10. What structural features were used:

• Candidate mythologies/candidate as "super hero"
• Background locations
• Props
• Hot button Appeals (those which research shows are particularly salient to the voters)
• Music: (rallying, patriotic, or foreboding....)
• Sound effects  (applause can create impression of approval; jail cell door slamming has opposite effect)
• Camera technique:  (Angles, focus, movement, distance)
• Editing:  (pace, continuity)
• Lighting: (shadows, flat lighting)
• Candidate's personal appearance
• Candidate's activity in the ad: (What he/she is doing...)
• Supers and Code Words: What verbal messages do we see on the screen? (Position, color, font, font size, etc.)

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

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