Publicly Advertising Candidates

As most of you have seen (some more then others depending if you are in a battleground state) there has been an influx in political commercials in the months and weeks leading up to the election. An estimated 6 billion in total will be spent on trying to win the Whit House from both Romney and Obama. Third Party donors and advertising also factors into that figure. Does the advertising work, has your opinion been swayed? How many of you actually have decided who to vote for as a result of the campaign ads?

I don't listen to the ads. I change the TV or Radio station when they come on. I skip the pages in the paper that have the ads on them. It's pretty rare that I don't know which candidates I'm going to vote for every quickly after they're announced, and that doesn't change because of any form of campaigning.

the only way an ad could change my vote is a scenario in which one candidate is so incredibly negative that i couldn't vote for him or her. however, now that corporations are people, superpacs are inundating every market with negative ads, so that exception no longer applies. my guess is that no future ad will have an effect on my vote.

Thank The Flame that I never bothered buying a TV. I see enough of this garbage on the internet. I can't believe people sit through those ads, or any ads for that matter. Why would an ad influence you? It's an AD for Flames sake.

iacardsfan said:

As most of you have seen (some more then others depending if you are in a battleground state) there has been an influx in political commercials in the months and weeks leading up to the election. An estimated 6 billion in total will be spent on trying to win the Whit House from both Romney and Obama. Third Party donors and advertising also factors into that figure. Does the advertising work, has your opinion been swayed? How many of you actually have decided who to vote for as a result of the campaign ads?

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I don't think you'll find very many people here who've been persuaded by the campaign ads. But in the general population for those who aren't paying as much attention as most people here do, I think advertising is very effective. It's why Obama was able to Indiana last election despite it being a Conservative state by spending five times as much as McCain in that state.

iacardsfan said:

As most of you have seen (some more then others depending if you are in a battleground state) there has been an influx in political commercials in the months and weeks leading up to the election. An estimated 6 billion in total will be spent on trying to win the Whit House from both Romney and Obama. Third Party donors and advertising also factors into that figure. Does the advertising work, has your opinion been swayed? How many of you actually have decided who to vote for as a result of the campaign ads?

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Its not us. The engaged.

Its low information voters who get their information from tv that all the money is being targeted to.

The most likely to be swayed by persuasive messaging techniques.

It works or they wouldnt be spending billions doing it.

I am not in a targeted area, Obama knows very well he has a snowballs chance in hell in my area. I did see 1 Obama add during some coverage of the Olympics, must of been a National broadcast one that slipped through. I gave it the finger, told Obama to rot in hell and switched channels. So the ads haven't affected me any because I already knew I was voting against Obama 4 years ago, am not going to change my mind and because, well, they are just not airing here very much, if at all, that I can see.

Political ads only change the weak minded simpletons who don't realize that they are being tricked into buying a certain political parties ideas. Anyone who has changed their mind based on a biased campaign ad has some serious issues with intelligence.

Tigger said:

I don't listen to the ads. I change the TV or Radio station when they come on. I skip the pages in the paper that have the ads on them. It's pretty rare that I don't know which candidates I'm going to vote for every quickly after they're announced, and that doesn't change because of any form of campaigning.

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So basically you make your decision before knowing a whole lot about the person, and you stick with it even if you may find out something seriously wrong with that candidate?

These ads are not designed to change the established voters minds. They are absolutely 100% positively out there for the undecided independent voter. Someone who might be on the fence about an issue and needs a little persuasion one way or the other.

OnWisconsin said:

So basically you make your decision before knowing a whole lot about the person, and you stick with it even if you may find out something seriously wrong with that candidate?

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Not quite. I go and look at their biographies, I check out their voting records, what policies were put in place while they were a Governor, etc... It generally takes only a few minutes to find a Liberal/Socialist policy that they have espoused or voted for; at which time I cannot support them and I move on. That's why there are so few candidates that I will actually vote for.

AreteCourage said:

Political ads only change the weak minded simpletons who don't realize that they are being tricked into buying a certain political parties ideas. Anyone who has changed their mind based on a biased campaign ad has some serious issues with intelligence.

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Well, past experience has shown that there are a number of those out there as you described, and that those who cannot be swayed by them are too evenly matched. Most of the American public is woefully ignorant about their own politicians, and generally un-involved. Hell, even in our current state of affairs, I bet we still only get less than or just barely above 50% of eligible voters to get off their asses and go vote.

And of the ones who will go vote, most of them will vote on one or two items that interest them and won't even pay attention to how their candidate "of choice" even affects the rest. Homosexuals will vote for Obama, because he supports homosexual marriage and got them openly into the military, screw the economy and everything else, that is all most of them will pay attention to. Blacks will vote their usual percentage towards Dems with a bit of increase based upon race, you could put Forrest Gump or someone even stupider on the Dem ticket and 80-85% of blacks would still vote for them. Hispanics are a bit less ardent about the Dems, but the majority of them will still go for the Dems. Almost all the rest will vote selfishly on issues directly affecting them, but still woefully uniformed. I would hazard a guess that there are less than 1% of voters in America who actually try to be informed of the big picture and who vote the overall picture without selfish considerations.

Ads are for the politically inept...

TheDemSocialist said:

Ads are for the politically inept...

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Shock of all shocks TDS, I am actually in agreement with you on that statement. Bet you never imagined me agree with you on something, did you.

DVSentinel said:

Shock of all shocks TDS, I am actually in agreement with you on that statement.

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:2razz:
:2party:

iacardsfan said:

As most of you have seen (some more then others depending if you are in a battleground state) there has been an influx in political commercials in the months and weeks leading up to the election. An estimated 6 billion in total will be spent on trying to win the Whit House from both Romney and Obama. Third Party donors and advertising also factors into that figure. Does the advertising work, has your opinion been swayed? How many of you actually have decided who to vote for as a result of the campaign ads?

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Campaign ads have no effect on me.All the political ads in the world are not going to make me voter for Romney or Obama.I will either vote 3rd party or leave that part of the ballot a blank.

I despise campaign ads and put no stock in them. The lack of veracity in recent ads only solidifies my stance on them.

DVSentinel said:

I am not in a targeted area, Obama knows very well he has a snowballs chance in hell in my area. I did see 1 Obama add during some coverage of the Olympics, must of been a National broadcast one that slipped through. I gave it the finger, told Obama to rot in hell and switched channels. So the ads haven't affected me any because I already knew I was voting against Obama 4 years ago, am not going to change my mind and because, well, they are just not airing here very much, if at all, that I can see.

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You're lucky, then. I see at least one every night for the Obama campaign. You'd think if the reports were true that Romney has more money than him that he'd stop wasting time and money on Texas.

OnWisconsin said:

These ads are not designed to change the established voters minds. They are absolutely 100% positively out there for the undecided independent voter. Someone who might be on the fence about an issue and needs a little persuasion one way or the other.

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Then they should collectively feel insulted by the caliber of ad being put in front of them. And if they're not, I'm sadden by the state of things.