Abstract
The American presidential campaign in 2008 saw a sharp upturn in attacks in advertising: Was that an anomalous result or does in presage a trend in presidential advertising? Notably, the increase in negativity in TV spots was not accompanied by an increase in attacks in other media, such as televised debates. The 2012 American presidential general election featured Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. In sharp contrast to earlier campaigns (those prior to 2008), the two candidates combined used more attacks (66%) than acclaims (32%); this essay argues that this shift reflects a sea change in presidential election advertising prompted by the rising costs of presidential campaigns and candidates’ recent decision to decline federal campaign financing and raise money throughout the campaign.
Highlights
The President of the United States is the most powerful elected official in the world
Political television commercials have been shown to influence voters; the presidential TV spots employed by the 2012 presidential candidates clearly merit scholarly attention
Research on presidential advertising in each campaign can reveal the existence of possible trends in these important messages over time: This essay will report a content analysis of 2012 general presidential TV spots and compare those findings with analyses of advertising from earlier campaigns; Benoit supplies the data on presidential TV spots from 1952 through 2012 employed in this essay
Summary
The President of the United States is the most powerful elected official in the world. Television spots have been an important element of presidential campaigns since 1952 and both candidates employed them extensively in 2012. Wilson reported that over a billion dollars was spent in the general election campaign by Obama, Romney, and outside groups [1]. This is almost a half a billion dollars more than was spent on this race just four years earlier. Political television commercials have been shown to influence voters; the presidential TV spots employed by the 2012 presidential candidates clearly merit scholarly attention. This study focuses on ads sponsored by candidates; spots from the political parties and PACs use significantly more attacks than advertisements from candidates [3]
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