Analyzing Political Television Advertisements

George Burson

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
6 (Spring 1992). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1992, Organization of American Historians

Introduction Many students lack the political sophistication necessary to interpret the underlying messages that are a basic ingredient of political advertising. This lesson plan will help students understand that political advertisements often appeal to people’s base emotions, and that they sometimes contain false or misleading information. This lesson plan will also give students the skills they need to examine political advertisements from an analytical point of view.

Prior to class the teacher should videotape several political ads. The more ads that can be taped the better. The ads should include candidates for as many offices as possible and represent both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Taping the ads can be done easily while watching television. Many ads will be run at the hour and half-hour. Put the VCR in the “record” mode and “pause” it until a political ad is broadcast.

Show the political ads to the students in class and have them fill out the worksheet after each ad is viewed (you may want to do this activity in groups). After each ad is shown have the students give their conclusions about the ad based on their worksheet data.

As a follow-up for this assignment, have students (either in class or for homework) do research on a political ad to see if the claims made for the candidate, or against his opponent, are valid.

Using the Worksheet

Name or number each political advertisement that you show so that students can easily identify the ad. Many ads will not mention the party that the candidate belongs to; lead a discussion on why this is so. (The candidate wants “cross-over” voters and does not want to antagonize voters who might like his ideas but belong to the other party; voters to whom party identity is important will either already know the candidate’s party or will be contacted by party workers who are “getting out the vote”).

Discuss the issues that the ad is referring to. Does the ad relay a message that is not explicitly stated? (The “Willie Horton” ad is the most famous example of this technique). Ask whether the ad is primarily for the candidate (a positive ad) or is it primarily against his opponent (a negative ad). Elicit feelings from the class on which type of ad they believe is the most effective and why they feel the way that they do.

The student should evaluate the ad for its effectiveness. For example, did it cause the student to want to vote for the candidate? After all the ads have been viewed, have the students rank them in order of effectiveness. Discuss the rankings.

George Burson teaches at Aspen High School in Aspen, Colorado.