What make a effective ad?what criteria do you think an ad needs to be an effective political ad?

Explanation:

OBJECTIVE

By viewing and analyzing selected presidential campaign advertisements, students will develop criteria

for evaluating what makes a political ad effective.

OVERVIEW

Political ads can communicate, persuade, and even entertain. A 30-second ad can be an effective tool

for convincing voters to support a candidate. Ads can target general or specific audiences, and they

can be effective or ineffective in different ways and for different reasons. They use emotion, persuasion,

factual claims, and cinematic style to influence voters. Critical analysis of political advertising entails

evaluating ads on all of these levels.

This lesson addresses topics that are examined in greater detail in other lesson plans on The Living

Room Candidate. Teachers wishing to explore any of the four levels of analysis discussed here more

deeply should consult the other lesson plans on the site:

• Playing on Emotions (emotion)

• The Use of Language in Political Ads (persuasion)

• Evaluating Information (factual claims)

• Developing Critical Analysis (cinematic style)PROCEDURES

Explain to students that a political ad, like the soap ad from the preliminary discussion above, uses

sounds, images, and factual claims to make arguments and to influence the way that voters feel. Ask

students to imagine that they are making an ad for a presidential candidate. They should consider the

same questions they answered in the preliminary discussion:

• Who would their audience be? Would it be a general audience, or would they want to target

a specific group?

• What would they want viewers to think about the candidate?

• What arguments would they want to make? How would they support those arguments?

• How would they want viewers to feel about the candidate?

• How would they want viewers to think and feel about the candidate’s opponent?

Tell students they will be watching a series of ads and evaluating their effectiveness. The first issue they

will focus on is intended audience. They will contrast an ad made for a general audience (“Surgeon”)

with an ad that targets a more specific audience (“Yes We Can,” which is geared towards a young

audience). Screen “Surgeon” (Clinton, 1996) and “Yes We Can” (Obama, 2008).

what the first or next guy says