David (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sageofgodalming) wrote in elfundeb, |
I hate the way these ads are designed to appeal to people's emotional reaction
*sigh*
They are so prevalent (we don't get ads much on political issues, but we get the emotional arguments) because they work.
For many years I was puzzled by the whole way in which election campaigns are carried on Don't they realise, I thought, that they are putting undecided people off? Everything came clear when I realised that campaigns are not about winning over the floating voter, but about persuading people who already support you to make the effort to get out and vote. The easiest way to do that, it seems, is to scare them with a caricature of the opposition.
So I feel that the electorate is mostly to blame for rewarding politicians who behave badly and punishing those who don't.
*sigh*
They are so prevalent (we don't get ads much on political issues, but we get the emotional arguments) because they work.
For many years I was puzzled by the whole way in which election campaigns are carried on Don't they realise, I thought, that they are putting undecided people off? Everything came clear when I realised that campaigns are not about winning over the floating voter, but about persuading people who already support you to make the effort to get out and vote. The easiest way to do that, it seems, is to scare them with a caricature of the opposition.
So I feel that the electorate is mostly to blame for rewarding politicians who behave badly and punishing those who don't.
