NORMAL– You may have noticed signs for various politicians in front yards or on street corners. The midterm elections are very near, and the advertising for politicians and issues has ramped up.
Physical signs are only a piece of the puzzle. Online advertisements are more pervasive, especially for college-aged students that are active online. Whether students are watching YouTube or are on Snapchat, they are being hit with promotional language and videos from local and national politicians.
The sheer amount of advertisements can be overwhelming, and students are not always well versed in the language. Nathan Carpenter, director of convergent media and primary architect and coordinator to the Social Media Analytics Command Center, has some insights on how to navigate these promos.
For starters, for online advertising, there are transparency tools available for students and the general public alike to peruse advertisements, according to Dr. Carpenter. The Facebook Ads Library is a tool that displays ads that have been flagged as political or relevant to social issues.
“What it provides is a sense of who is funding the ad, and then provides a little bit of background information about who that ad is targeting in terms of age, sex and general demographics,” Carpenter said.
Similarly, google has Google Political Ads Transparency. This does the same thing and displays what is being shown in the ad, how much is spent on it, what demographic it targets and who the advertiser is. Google also owns many media companies, such as YouTube, and will also give you the same statistics for all of the companies it owns.
Being so entrenched in political communication, it is hard to see the big picture. Using the tools available, students are able to find out why they are being shown the ads they receive.
“I think the best way for [students] to be an informed consumer is to think about the fact that so many of these ads are not actually produced by the certain campaigns themselves, a lot of them are being produced by political action committees or political interest groups or other organizations that are involved in buying those ads,” Carpenter said.
As for physical advertising, such as yard signs and campaign literature, effective marketing strategies come from color usage and general graphic design. Red and blue have a specific party leaning, so signage using these colors are usually trying to advertise for one side.
“Can somebody from 20 yards away moving at 20 miles per hour read that, and if that’s the case then you’ve got an effective sign in terms of being seen,” Carpenter said. “The use of color is a big part of it, and especially in the current fairly politicized environment that we’re in, there’s a lot of attempts to brand yourself one way or another with a particular design.”
As for local races such as Illinois District 91, advertising can come from signs, literature or even word of mouth.
“Our number one focus is always interpersonal communication,” candidate Sharon Chung’s Campaign Lead Alex Campbell said. “Canvassing is one of the best forms of communication because of how hyper-focused and customized the conversation can be.”
Attempts were made to chat with opponent Scott Preston’s campaign team to get insight on their process, but replies were not received. Instead, looking at his campaign website, the audience can see what issues he focuses on. Under issues, he highlights education, the economy and backing the blue.
Both local candidates use yard signs and literature that goes through the postal system. They also have social media pages to connect with voters online. Again, using Facebook Ads Library and Google Ads Transparency, young voters can see who pays for what advertisements and what is being pushed towards them.
“As excited as I am that these tools exist and we can do all of this, we also know that they are not perfect and that they are still biased by Meta and Google,” Carpenter said. “So, I always take these tools with a grain of salt, knowing that they are not a complete picture.”
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