Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:12:20.562Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Advertising on Cable Television in the Presidential Primaries: Something to Look For in '92

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

James M. Hoefler
James M. Hoefler*
Affiliation:
Dickinson College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The cost of running presidential primary campaigns has increased dramatically since the primary replaced the party convention as the preferred method of presidential candidate selection. Much of this well documented rise in campaign spending has been attributed to the increased use of televised political advertising. Today, political parties have been supplanted by the media as the most prominent link between the voter and the election process. It is not party identification or the “get out the vote” apparatus, but slick, high tech, 30-second spot advertisements that have helped to make or break presidential campaigns for party nominations in recent years.

Today, candidates are apt to spend two-thirds or more of their primary campaign budgets on paid political advertising, and the 1992 presidential primary season promises more of the same. In addition, the '92 primaries may offer an interesting twist in campaign strategy. In the past, media battles for the nomination have been waged over the broadcast airwaves. In the future, primary watchers would be well advised to pay close attention to the role played by cable television.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 45 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. The Jekyll/Hyde approach suggested here would simply transform a tried and true campaign strategy into the realm of advertising. Reporters covering the Bush campaign in 1988 note that it was common for the candidate to deliver a Dr. Jekyll speech—an upbeat, good feeling, rose garden appeal designed for a broadcast audience—in the mid-afternoon: in time to make the evening news but too late for editors to do much but select the appropriate sound bites. Then a Mr. Hyde speech—typically a hard hitting, negative, targeted delivery tailored to fuel local fires—came during the dinner hour: in time to be covered live by the local affiliates, but too late for same day coverage by the networks (and too old for next day coverage).