Ahh.....the morning after an election. There's something new and fresh in the air, can you feel it? The sun is shining (or would be in Champaign if it wasn't foggy), birds are singing, people are smiling and happy. What can this possibly be? Does this signal a shift in the political climate? Are the politicians actually going to follow through on their promises and lower taxes, clean out corruption in the government, fix our schools, and give us health care?
What, are you kidding? No, I'm talking about our airwaves. They are now free and clear of muckracking, name calling, and unflattering pictures taken with someone's mouth open. Yes folks, the campaign ads are over. Some of us remember a time when campaign ads were a good thing. They were the equivalent of the whistle stop campaign-they allowed you to get a look at the candidate and hear what he or she thinks is the reason they are qualified to hold office. Now, it's turned into an ugly mess of he said she said, and you get no real sense of who the candidate is as a person and potential leader. Both sides are equally good at this, so you can't blame just one party.
I know I'm not the only one to complain about these ads. Surely there must be research somewhere that shows that the public does not respond well to this kind of advertising. Or maybe I'm wrong, and people don't let this influence their vote (or lack of).
All I know for sure is, my television is now free of name-calling politicians. I can go back to watching a barrage of male-enhancement commercials. Smilin' Bob, how I missed you.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
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2 comments:
You know we have TIVO and can skip commercials, right? I'll show you that feature later. :-)
I'm with you, Traci. I usually go on a self-imposed broadcast media blackout about 2 to 3 months from an election. You're not getting any more facts from the news either. All they do is show soundbites of candidates attacking each other, so why bother watching any of it?
The attack ad thing will change when broadcasters finally start to see a dip in the ratings when these ads are running. But then again, they might see this already but don't publicize it because they're addicted to the money and they know politicians regularly throw money at solutions that have been proven not too work.
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