The Art of Advertisements: How Presidential Campaigns

Use Television Ads

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Context:
This two-day lesson is part of a junior civics course within Coventry High School. Of the

471 students who attend the high school, 90.9% identify as Caucasian, 3.7% identify as

Hispanic, 1.2% identify as Black, 0.6% identify as Asian, and 3.7% identify with two races

(Coventry). Most Caucasian students have ethnic routes in European countries, predominately

Italy and Ireland. One student named Otto has just moved to Coventry from Hamburg, Germany

and is an English Language Learner. Students in Coventry High School speak English and

although Otto is a native German speaker, he received a few years of education in the English

language at his school in Hamburg. ELL and ESL accommodations and modifications are made

on individual basis depending on student’s proficiency in English. Accommodations and

modifications are also made for students with disabilities based on their individualized IEP or

504 plan. Special education teachers and paraprofessionals are in communication with other staff

to ensure that the learning needs of these students are met. The graduation rate at Coventry High

School is 95% percent, 8% above the Connecticut average, and many graduates go off to college.

Most students in the school come from middle-class households. CHS has 20% more students

ineligible for free/reduced lunch than the average school in Connecticut (Coventry).

Coventry High School is a beautiful facility that has a newly done addition that includes a

new auditorium as well as a new gymnasium. Hallways are decorated with student artwork and

assignments at all times. Although the high school is quite small, it has multiple computer labs

that teachers can reserve so that students can work with technology and create multimedia

projects. Every student and teacher at CHS receives an iPad at the beginning of the year. The

iPad allows students to do web-based research within the classroom as well as have a means to

technology at home. Students also have access to a large library that is shared between the high

school and the middle school. With their IDs, students are allowed to check out books and other
 3

research sources. The class day is made up of eight fifty-minute blocks. During students’ study

hall and free blocks, they are able to go down the library and use the resources available.

This lesson is situated within a civics classroom located in the social studies wing of the

high school. The classroom is decorated with maps and national flags. The teacher’s desk

resides in the back of the classroom. Instead of a traditional room layout composed of front-

facing, individual desks, the twenty students in the class sit at five large tables with four students

at each table. The four students at the table work together as a team throughout the unit and learn

to collaborate and compromise with each other through discussion. After each unit, the teacher

rearranges the seating chart so students learn to work with other classmates and see different

points of view. At the front of the class is a large whiteboard where the teacher often takes notes.

On the left side of the whiteboard, the teacher visibly displays the unit’s questions and objectives

as well as the day’s agenda and homework. Students in the class are familiar with the routine of

the doing the “Do Now” as they come into the classroom without a reminder from the teacher.

Within this civic course, students are trying to understand the essential question of “How

could I take part in civic life?” This course explores the student’s role as a citizen and the

responsibilities he/she has to partake in democratic society. Deliberation and discussion are often

utilized so students can hear a wide range of perspectives and come to their own understandings

of controversial subjects. This two-day unit exposes students to political advertisements that they

will see outside of the classroom and gives them the skills to interpret these messages. Many of

the students in the class are around seventeen to eighteen years old and are eager to cast their

vote in the 2016 election. By discussing what active citizenship looks like as well as reviewing

current events, students leave school and enter the community as an informed and active member

in democratic society with the skills to help make the difference they want to see in the world.
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Unit/Lesson Questions and Objectives

Course Essential Question: How could I take part in civic life?

Unit Questions:
- How have the ways in which campaign advertisements arouse emotion changed over the
past 50 years?

- Are attack ads against other candidates more persuasive than self-promotion ads in the
2016 presidential election?

Unit Objectives:
- Students will be able to evaluate how campaign advertisements have changed during the
last 50 years.

- Students will be able to identify and compare the persuasiveness of different campaign ad
strategies during the 2016 presidential election process.

- Students will be able to develop critical thinking skills through the analysis of primary
source documents.
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Correlations and Connection to Standards

Unit Objectives Assessments Daily Activities CT Standards

Students will be able to Graphic Do Now: Read the HIST 9-12.2: Analyze
evaluate how campaign organizer article excerpt change and continuity in
advertisements have historical eras.
changed during the last 50 Think-Pair- Graphic organizer
years. Share
Think-Pair-Share

Review and Preview

Students will be able to Forced Choice Forced Choice HIST 9-12.16: Integrate
identify and compare the evidence from multiple
persuasiveness of Calling All Calling All Potential relevant historical sources
different campaign ad Potential Class Class Presidents and interpretations into a
strategies during the 2016 Presidents assignment reasoned argument about
election process. assignment the past.

Students will be able to Graphic Graphic Organizer CIV 9-12.9: Use appropriate
develop critical thinking Organizer while watching deliberative processes in
skills and reasoned presidential campaign multiple settings.
judgment through the Think-Pair- ads CIV 9-12.10: Construct
analysis of primary source Share arguments using precise and
documents. Think-Pair-Share knowledgeable claims, with
Forced Choice evidence from multiple
Forced Choice of resources, while
Campaign Ad acknowledging
Transcripts counterclaims and
evidentiary weakness.
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Rationale
With the 2016 election quickly approaching, we wanted to create a lesson that let

students develop the skill of analyzing presidential campaign advertisements. Students are going

to encounter these ads outside of the classroom and need to develop a consciousness that will let

them critically evaluate the ad’s strategy and come to a reasoned judgment on it’s

persuasiveness. We used backwards design to create a lesson where students can discover the

strategies employed by presidential nominees in campaign advertisements. We thought that the

“Do Now” hook activity served to as a great introduction to get students to think about how

important advertisements are becoming in presidential campaigns. With this dramatic increase in

advertisement spending, presidential nominees are appealing to larger audiences than ever before

through television. In order for students to understand how political advertisements work and

eventually collaborate with a partner creating their own persuasive advertisement, we decided a

good way to scaffold the unit is by showing them a series of advertisements from the past 50

years and the various strategies employed by candidates to gain voters trust. In doing this,

students are challenged to see the changes in these campaign ads over time and recognize the

apparent shift from self-promotion to attack ads that has taken place. Students must be able to

analyze political advertisements as future voters and this activity will give them the opportunity

to practice and hone in on this skill using past presidential advertisements as the content.

Students also fill out a graphic organizer as a way to collect their observations. This

organizer allows the teacher assess their ability to critically analyze primary sources. We decided

a think-pair-share activity for this would be a good way to get the conversation going. If we just

went straight to a classroom discussion, we fear that students who are ELLs or struggle to grasp

the concepts of the lesson may not get the same educational enrichment that they would when

discussing ideas as a small group first. Students can come to their own conclusion about which
 7

type of ad they find more effective and this is very important as students get to learn what

appeals to him or herself as well as their classmates. They are all entitled to their own opinion on

what is most effective and we hope that well scaffolded class discussion will allow various

perspectives, ideas, opinions, and connections to come up in the overall class discussion.

On the second day of work, we started with a Review And Preview for our warm up to

keep the continuity and the discussion going. We recognize students have a lot going on in their

lives and this activity serves as a way for them to recall the big ideas of the previous class and

direct their thinking back to the unit. The next activity was selected because it scaffolds the

writing aspect of the political ad they are about to create. We are also asking them to determine

which strategies are employed by various campaign ads, which exercises their historical

understanding as they evaluate resources. The teacher allows students to explain their reasoning

and how they derived their interpretation of the primary source. Students then do a forced choice

and rank them on their persuasiveness, as this connects with the objective of evaluating the

effectiveness of certain advertisement strategies. The students work in their groups and practice

deliberation and their ability to be a community of practice (Levine). Group mates may have

differing views but through this discussion students get to hear ideas and perspectives they have

not encountered before.

Ultimately, the students are given the task of creating their own campaign ad for class

presidency. The entire two days lesson has been scaffolding this task. Students now know

various campaign advertisement strategies and which strategy they find most persuasive.

Students can adopt strategies from the resources they analyzed as well as come up with their own

ideas. This activity also has the unique potential to motivate students to get involved in their

class counsel and work to enact the change they want to see in their school.
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English Language Learner Support

In our high school civics course, there is only one student that is qualified as an ELL and

that is Otto who just moved into Coventry from Hamburg, Germany. Although he is still learning

the English language, he is submersed with native speakers of English and is learning every

subject with these students. That being said, he is not entirely fluent with the language so we

have decided to make a couple of modifications in our lesson in order to help his understanding

of the lesson. One modification that we had planned was to incorporate the use of closed

captioning on the different campaign advertisements that we are showing the class. We will still

be using English closed captioning in order to help Otto practice hearing the language, as well as

being able to read in English what is being said. This not only helps out Otto but can also help

the class as a whole if anyone has hearing issues. This is intended so Otto will be able to draw

his attention to the different patterns of basic structures of the English language so it can help his

further understanding of the material and allow him to get more involved later on in the unit.

Another aspect of our lesson that is intended to help Otto is our incorporation of a lot

group work for the students. During the first day of the lesson, we have decided to do a Think-

Pair-Share, in which Otto will be able to participate English with others. By having Otto

participate in a small group, he can not only share what he has written down and practice his

English speaking skills but also sit and reflect on styles of communication between native

English speakers. During the second day of the lesson, Otto and his classmates will be working

on other group assignments like forced choice and the final assignment that will challenge him to

think critically while also being able to have a group partner that can help point out and correct

any English language errors. One of the goals that Cruz and Thornton emphasize in their article

is to maximize the amount of opportunities to interact with others in English and we feel these

group work activities are the best way to do it during our two-day lesson.
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Historical Understanding

The two-day lesson that we are have prepared for this civics course has many different

ways of promoting and developing historical understanding within our students. One of these

ways in which the first day of our lesson helps to promote historical understanding is through the

use of historical sources and evidence. By showing the students different examples of campaign

ads, we are asking them to analyze and critique different pieces of evidence. This also plays a

part in the inquiry process that students go through in the lesson because one of the key

components of this process is analyzing evidence and coming to informed conclusions. What the

students are doing with the evidence, more specifically the television advertisements, is

analyzing how the ways these documents persuade voters have changed over the last 50 years.

Students also evaluate the sources and come to their own understanding of what persuades

voters. This facet of historical understanding holds great importance as students are also

comparing and contrasting the present to the past so they get a greater sense of how America and

our political and social climate has changed. Another big aspect of historical understanding that

has to do with looking at the evidence we have provided, is to help the students think about

multiple perspectives. For example, on day two of our lesson, we are giving the students a

transcript of a couple of television ads but we are intentionally leaving out which presidential

candidate had released the television advertisement. This is intended to help students analyze the

evidence so they can develop an understanding of the perspective of the creator of the

advertisement. Students try to interpret the perspective of the various ads and decipher the

candidate it supports. Students also consider causes and effects associated with ads. If the class

feels that self-promotion campaign ads are the most effective then they may feel that a politician

who only uses attack ads will be less likely to garner votes and less likely to win the election.
 10

Students are also required to put these advertisements into the context of current

American political issues. By looking at campaign advertisements such as the one titled “Role

Models”, students are developing an understanding of various social and political issues of the

time, one being immigration. If students hear Trump’s divisive words about how Mexicans are

rapists and murderers, we want them to understand that there are factions of society promoting

and agreeing with these views. While a candidates rhetoric and ideas may seem despicable to one

student at first, a true historical understanding would help students acknowledge that the

candidate’s opinion are part of a branch of American ideology that is shaping and influencing

that candidate’s policies. Students must be able to come to their own conclusions about this type

of divisive talk and be able to deliberate over these controversial topics like the rest of society.

By using group work, such as the second day assessment “Calling all Potential Class Presidents”,

we are also trying to promote within our classroom aspects of deliberation and compromise

amongst different students. The hope is that students will work with another person to judge

which qualities of a campaign advertisement are important to them. This idea of deliberating

with others is important for historical understanding as students are gaining qualities of viewing

multiple perspectives and working with others for a common goal. Practicing the priceless skill

of discussion and debate to come to an equally agreeable advertisement, students are able to

present their conclusions on political advertising in a safe and comfortable environment.

Although students may not feel like they have gone through the process of inquiry, students will

have practiced historical understanding by asking tough questions, evaluating the sources

available to them, synthesizing the information they gathered from the sources, coming to a

reasoned conclusion on what makes a strong campaign advertisement, and presenting it an

enjoyable and creative manner.

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Ongoing Considerations

After reflecting on the many tasks that we created for this lesson, one thing that we must

stress is the assumptions made when pulling out activities out of our toolbox. We assumed that

this lesson plan occurred during the middle of the school year and our students had been

accustomed to certain daily routines. For example, students should be prompted for the warm up

by the “Do Now” slide. Moreover, when we broke out into a Think-Pair-Share activity, the

students would not need any scaffolding. If a substitute teacher were to come in and do this

lesson, these keywords should already have been conditioned into our student’s minds and would

not require any teaching of the specific activity they are undergoing.

We feel that the summative assessment is both strong, unique, and engaging. This end to

the unit truly challenges the student to utilize the knowledge gained from the two days

work. Students will have to demonstrate their understanding of how an ad works, as well as

being able to work with a partner to come to mutually acceptable solutions for their

campaign. This is a regular facet of life. When working on projects students may have to come

to an agreement when having differing views, and we encourage such debate within our

classroom as it allows students to express their views as well make concessions and compromise.

One regret about this activity is the time constraint we are under. If students had more time to

work on their advertisements, students could actually storyboard and film their potential

campaign advertisements. Instead of using multimedia and fostering even more creativity,

students emulate the transcripts that they analyzed on the second day. With more time and

resources, students could really make their ideal campaign ad come to life. These filmed or

animated advertisements could then be posted on the class webpage or presented during class so

students could appreciate their classmates’ creativity and interpretation.

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This final assignment also transcends the creation of a simple campaign advertisement.

By putting the election within the context of Coventry High School, students can be genuinely

engaged in the topic and critically think about what policies they would support. One of the

intended goals of teaching social studies is to prepare students for their life in our democratic

society or, as Barton and Livestik put it, “to exert influence in public affairs”. Therefore, this

assignment may create a passion for students to maybe one day actually run for class president

and become more considerate about their role as a student within the school or more generally an

individual within a community.

This is our first lesson plan created this year in Methods. While we believe that this is a

great and engaging lesson - it does have a few flaws. We decided not to use any homework

assignments and for students to just “think” about presidential advertisements between days. If

we were to modify this assignment in any way, we may think about choosing a homework

assignment between the days that would help connect to analyzing primary sources. Perhaps

sending home different campaign ads to different groups and assigning them with the task of

explaining their advertisement’s strategy to other groups during the warm-up would be just as

effective as the RAP. We are also constrained by the types of primary sources we can use for

political advertisements for the sake of time. We chose to only discuss TV commercials, in both

written and video form. Seeing and hearing something may give students a completely different

view of something than if they read it. We think that while this is a limitation in the sense that

we only chose commercials that play on television, we do analyze the televised advertisement

through two different mediums. If we could put this two-day lesson within a larger unit on how

presidential nominees persuade voters, we may include the analysis of other primary source

documents such as press conferences, radio interviews, twitter, and other forms of social media.
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Reference List

Day 1

[4President]. (2011 January 7). Jimmy Carter 1980 TV Ad State. [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mGrJZ-s5jg

Jimmy Carter 1980 TV Ad State: President Jimmy Carter presented this one-minute long
campaign advertisement for his re-election in 1980, showing different video footage of his
activities as President, as well as narration of his accomplishments.

[BarackObama.com]. (2012 June 4). We've Heard it All Before - Obama for America Television
Ad. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWdZEJW1vWY

We’ve Heard it All Before-Obama for America Television Ad: Barack Obama presented this one-
minute video in 2012, showing the different ways in which Mitt Romney had “failed” in his state
of Massachusetts, by providing statistics that show these different economic failures.

Kurtzleben, D. (2015, August 19). 2016 Campaigns Will Spend $4.4 Billion On TV Ads, But
Why? Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/19/432759311/2016-campaign-tv-
ad-spending

Morgado, Andre. (2006 November 12). Ronald Reagan TV Ad: "Its morning in america again".
[Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IBF8nwSY

Ronald Reagan TV ad “It’s morning in America again”: This is once again a campaign
advertisement for re-election, this time presented by Ronald Reagan. In the advertisement,
Reagan is narrating his different accomplishments as well as showing different scenic images
such as wedding videos and boats on the water with a beautiful city skyline in the background to
garner a more joyful feeling.

Nolan, Christopher. (2007 August 12). Bill Clinton attacks "read my lips". [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUv7y4U2T0

Bill Clinton attacks “read my lips”: This 30-second video was presented by the Bill Clinton
campaign in 1992, which shows George H.W. Bush’s famous “Read my Lips” dialogue in which
he mouths the phrase “No new taxes.” This is then juxtaposed with large print and a narration
saying, “Then he gave us the second biggest tax increase in American history”. The video then
shows that that Bill Clinton’s state of Arkansas, “has the second lowest tax burden in the
country”. This ad was used at first to attack Bush and then promote Clinton himself.
 14

[UnreportedResistance]. (2008 December 29). JFK - Campaign Jingle 1960 Election Ad. [Video
File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLXTB_S193w

JFK-Campaign Jingle 1960 Election Ad: This one-minute long campaign advertisement depicts
a catchy jingle that describes John F. Kennedy’s accomplishments, with fleeting images of
pictures of Kennedy himself as well as pictures of Americans.

Day 2
Clinton, Hillary. (2016 February 19). All The Good | Hillary Clinton. [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iDRu2q2cRw

Clinton, Hillary. (2016 July 14). Role Models | Hillary Clinton. [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrX3Ql31URA

[Team Trump]. (2016 September 11). Deplorables. [Video File].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj7CLJbyjrk

Deplorables and Role Models and All the Good: The content of these videos is apparent when
reading the transcripts on pages 33, 34, and 35.

Sources used for our Lesson Overview (Part A)

Armstrong, S., Blitzer, J., Bosso, D., Breen, M., Brodnitzki, T., Callan, A., . . . Weaver, C.
(2015, February). Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks.
Retrieved September 18, 2016, from
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/board/ssframeworks.pdf

Barton, K. C., & Levstik, L. S. (2004). Participatory Democracy and Democratic Humanism in
Teaching History for the Common Good. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[HuskyCT]

Cruz, B., & Thornton, S. J. (2009). Teaching Social Studies to English language learners. New
York: Routledge. [HuskyCT]

Coventry High School in Coventry, Connecticut. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2016,
from http://public-schools.startclass.com/l/17492/Coventry-High-School

Levine, Thomas H. ‘A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens’: Social studies

classrooms as communities of practice that enable social action. University of
Connecticut.
 15

Unit: Campaign Advertisements

Lesson: The Evolution of Campaign Advertisements
Objectives (to be written on the board):
(1) Students will be able to evaluate how campaign ads have changed during the last 50 years
(2) Students will be able to identify and compare the persuasiveness of different campaign ad strategies
during the 2016 presidential election process.
(3) Students will be able to develop critical thinking skills through the analysis of primary source
documents.

Questions (to be written on the board):

(1) How have the ways in which campaign advertisements arouse emotion changed over the past 50
years?
(2) Are attack ads against other candidates more persuasive than self-promotion ads in the 2016
presidential election?

Agenda: (to be written on the board) Materials:

Do Now: Read article excerpt and discuss Computer and projector

Activity: Graphic organizer of campaign advertisements Article hand-out

Activity: Think-Pair-Share about the advertisements Graphic organizer

Closure: Wrap-up discussion and collect graphic organizer

Assessment
Formal: Graphic Organizer

Informal: Walk around and observe during Think-Pair Share

Hook:
1:00-1:10: Do Now: “2016 Campaigns will Spend 4.4 Billion on TV Ads, but Why?”

We assume that in this high school civics course, students are prompted that we are beginning a warm
up/grabber activity when we present through PowerPoint a “Do Now” slide. Students will individually
read through an excerpt of this article and start to think about the importance of advertisements in
presidential campaigns.
After students have read the article, the teacher initiates a class wide discussion on campaign
advertisements. The teacher will lead students in a general discussion that encourages students to think
about their exposure to campaign advertisements and any effects these advertisements have had on
their political ideas. The teacher will ask a series of questions will spark class discussion and interest.
• Have any of you seen any political campaign advertisements in the past?
• What are certain features that you might see across political advertisements?
• How do these advertisements attempt to convince to vote for the person?
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Lesson Activities:
1:11-1:30: Graphic Organizer on Campaign Advertisements

1:11-1:12: Teacher goes to the next slide on the PowerPoint that reviews the questions
and objectives for the two-day unit. This will give students an opportunity to focus their
thinking on campaign advertisements as well as consider the importance of the lesson's
objectives.
1:13-1:15: Following a review of the unit’s lessons and objectives, the teacher hands out
a graphic organizer to students. This graphic organizer will serve as an effective way for
students to collect their thoughts on the advertisements they are about to watch. While
the teacher reviews the activity, students have the opportunity to look over the graphic
organizer and ask any questions about phrasing or concepts before the activity starts.
Once the teacher has clarified any questions and has surveyed the room to make sure
students have a writing utensil out to fill out the graphic organizer, the teacher can move
onto the next slide and start the activity.
1:16-1:18: Students watch the first video depicting JFK’s 1960 campaign advertisement.
After watching the advertisement, students have a minute to finish collecting their
thoughts and record their observations and questions in the graphic organizer. During
this minute, the teacher can make sure that all students are filling out their organizers
while pulling up the next slide with the next video on it.
1:19-1:21: Students watch the second video depicting Jimmy Carter’s 1980 campaign
advertisement. After watching the advertisement, students have a minute to fill out their
organizer. The teacher can survey the classroom while pulling up the next
advertisement.
1:22-1:24: Students watch the third campaign advertisement, “Morning in America” by
Ronald Reagan, as they fill out their graphic organizer. Students are given an extra
minute to finish up their thoughts while the teacher pulls up the next video.
1:25-1:27: Students will watch the fourth campaign advertisement, “Read My Lips” by
Bill Clinton. As they watch the advertisement, students will fill out their graphic
organizer. After the video is finished, students will have an extra minute to finish
writing down their thoughts while the teacher surveys the class and pulls up the last
advertisement of the activity.
1:28-1:30: Students watch the last advertisement, “We’ve Heard it All Before” by
Barack Obama, as they fill out their graphic organizer. Students will have an additional
minute to finish writing down their thoughts. Once the teacher has looked around the
classroom and concluded that the students have finished filling out their graphic
organizers, the teacher moves onto the next slide of the PowerPoint to start the next
activity.
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1:31-1:48: Think-Pair-Share

1:31-1:40: On the next slide, the teacher initiates a think-pair-share activity. Students
make groups with classmates at their table. Using the thoughts they collected on the
graphic organizers, the groups discuss their thoughts on the advertisements with the goal
of preparing themselves to share their findings with the rest of the class. During this
time period, the teacher will walk around to each group to informally assess student
comprehension. The teacher will focus group discussion and ensure that groups are not
getting off task. If the teacher notices that group discussion is being dominated by a
single student or that a student is not contributing to discussion, the teacher may choose
to join the discussion and help get students involved.
1:41-1:48: The teacher brings the class together for a whole class discussion. In this
discussion, groups are encouraged to share their thoughts on the campaign
advertisements they watched and address the question prompted by the PowerPoint. The
teacher will ask a series of question to stir class discussion although with the scaffolding
provided for this assignment, the discussion should occur naturally. If the discussion at
any point begins to fail to generate student engagement with the objectives, the teacher
may ask redirecting questions such as:
• What changes did you notice about campaign advertisements over the last fifty
years?
• What advertisement did you like the best/the most effective? Explain your
decision- making process.
• What advertisement did you find least effective? Explain your decision-making
process.
• Do students have anything in their “Questions, Thoughts, Ideas, Connections”
box that they would like to share and discuss with the class?

Closure:
1:49-1:50: Wrap-up discussion and collect graphic organizers
The teacher thanks students for the participation in the day’s activity. Before students rush to pack up
their things and leave, the teacher asks students to hand in their graphic organizers at the front of the
classroom. After the students leave the class, the teacher can cross reference student graphic organizers
with the answer key. By reviewing student graphic organizers, the teacher can formally assess student
understanding of campaign advertisements.
 18

2016 Campaigns Will Spend $4.4 Billion

On TV Ads, But Why?
By: Danielle Kurtzleben
The 2016 election is already providing a lot of eye-popping
statistics about the ballooning spending candidates will do in
the 2016 election. Among them:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's superPAC has already raised
more — in the first half of a non-election year — than Obama's
main superPAC did in all of the 2012 cycle.
The latest big TV ad buy in the 2016 presidential election — on
Ohio Gov. John Kasich's behalf, totaling $375,000 — is worth
more than seven times the annual median U.S. household income.
There have already been seven times more political ads in the
2016 election than at this point in the 2012 election, according to
Elizabeth Wilner, senior vice president at Kantar's Campaign
Media and Analysis Group.

Or just try to digest the aggregate numbers. For instance,

political TV ad spending will top $4.4 billion for federal races
this year, up from $3.8 billion in 2012, Wilner estimated.
Yet TV ads seem to have only small effects on how Americans
vote. So why do campaigns spend such huge chunks of their
budgets on television spots? It's the need for name
recognition, at first. Later on, fear, habit and the hunger for
the small sliver of votes at play also drive the huge spending.
So Why Buy Ads?
 19

You could argue that part of the reason ads are so expensive is
because campaigns don't know how effective they'll be.
"In a highly competitive race where candidates are well-
known, ads aren't going to make more than a 2-3 percentage
point difference, but obviously, some races are decided by 2-3
percentage points, and so you just don't want to give up on
that," writes Ridout in an email.
Campaigns don't know what the return on investment on any
given ad will be, but then, they only care about one return:
winning or losing. The one vote that pushes a candidate over
the finish line is the vote that matters, so it's priceless.
There's also a business reason that campaigns spend so much
on ads: campaign consultants have an incentive to push ads,
according to Green, because they're in the media business —
they not only believe in ads, but they sometimes get a cut of
the media spending.
One other reason spending is growing: It's an arms race.
"We found ourselves trying to match each other in the
buying," said Phillips of the 2012 campaign. After winning
South Carolina, the campaign soon found itself outmatched in
Florida, where Mitt Romney's campaign inundated voters
with anti- Gingrich ads. He even compared the spending
ramp-up to a military attack.
"What [the Gingrich] campaign faced when they left South
Carolina and went down to Florida was nothing short of a
blitzkrieg. It was a bombing of sorts, a carpet bombing of
Gingrich folks, that we have never seen before," said Phillips.
And if ads really do have that short-term effect that studies
 20

have found, campaigns want to keep the blitzkriegs going,

unstopped, to keep those effects going (and to avoid losing
ground to opponents, who are launching their own
blitzkriegs).
But if the general election is an arms race of spending on
ineffective ads that only affect a few people, what does that
mean? Could campaigns radically pull back their spending
with little effect? Could they reinvest elsewhere?

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/19/432759311/2016-campaign-tv-
ad-spending
 21

Do Now: Pick up and read the article

titled, “2016 Campaigns will Spend 4.4
Billion on TV Ads”, from the Do Now pile
in the front of class.

Lesson Objectives

!  Students will be able to evaluate how campaign ads

have changed during the last 50 years.

!  Students will be able to identify and compare the

persuasiveness during the 2016 presidential
election process

!  Skill Objective: Students will be able to develop

critical thinking skills through the analysis of
primary source documents.
 22

1960 “Campaign Jingle”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=JLXTB_S193w

1980 “Campaign Ad”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mGrJZ-s5jg
 23

1984 “Morning in America”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa8Qupc4PnQ

1992 “Read my Lips”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUv7y4U2T0
 24

2012 “We’ve Heard it all Before”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWdZEJW1vWY

Think-Pair-Share

! With the people at your table,

discuss any changes you noticed
in television advertisements
throughout the past 50 years. Be
prepared to discuss with the
class.
 25

Name:____________________________________________
Date:_____________________________________________
Teacher:_________________________________________

Campaign Advertisements Throughout Time

Name of Advertisment Which candidate is this How does this Does this advertisement
advertisement advertisement persuade focus on promoting the
promoting? voters? candidate or attacking the
candidate’s opponent?
1960 Campaign Jingle

1980 Campaign Ad
 26

1984 Morning in
America

1992 Read My Lips

2012 We’ve Heard it all

Before

Questions, Thoughts, Ideas, Connections:

 27

Campaign Advertisements Throughout Time

ANSWER KEY

Name of Advertisment Which candidate is this How does this Does this advertisement
advertisement advertisement persuade focus on promoting the
promoting? voters? candidate or attacking the
candidate’s opponent?
1960 Campaign Jingle John F. Kennedy -The jingle is very catchy Promoting the Candidate
and speaks positively about
JFK’s accomplishments.
-It discusses how important
your vote is and how you as
a voter can vote for
Kennedy and make the
change that needs to
happen.
-The video is appealing to
watch and features the name
“Kennedy” many times.

1980 Campaign Ad Jimmy Carter -The advertisement speaks Promoting the Candidate
highly of the job that
President Carter has done
and how difficult the task he
has accomplished is.
-The advertisement talks
about how Carter represents
America and as our
representative to the world
he makes a positive impact
and lasting relationships.
-Makes the voter feel like
he/she would be supporting
good sense and kindness by
voting for Carter.
 28

1984 Morning in Ronald Reagan -The advertisement features Promoting the Candidate
America soothing music and very
positive settings.
-The advertisement
promotes optimism and a
feeling of progress.
-The advertisement focuses
on how good life is and
makes voters feel that life
under Reagan is better than
any alternative.

1992 Read My Lips Bill Clinton -Angers viewers by making Attacking the Candidate’s
them feel like they were lied Opponent
to.
-The advertisement plays
into peoples fears about
what another four years of
President Bush would mean.
-The music playing while
talking about Bush is very
uneasy while the music
playing while talking about
Bill is very uplifting and
light.

2012 We’ve Heard it all Barrack Obama -The advertisement Attacking the Candidate’s
Before associates Romney with Opponent
empty factories and
joblessness.
-The music is very dramatic
-The advertisement uses
statistics and graphs that
highlight Romney’s
weaknesses.
-The advertisement appeals
to voters who think that
politicians are liars.

Questions, Thoughts, Ideas, Connections:

Students can record anything in this box. These notes can and should be brought up in class discussion following
the videos.
 29

Unit: Campaign Advertisements

Lesson: Campaign Advertisements in the 2016 Election
Objectives (to be written on the board):
(1) Students will be able to evaluate how campaign ads have changed during the last 50 years
(2) Students will be able to identify and compare the persuasiveness of different campaign ad strategies
during the 2016 presidential election process.
(3) Students will be able to develop critical thinking skills through the analysis of primary source
documents.

Questions (to be written on the board):

(1) How have the ways in which campaign advertisements arouse emotion changed over the past 50
years?
(2) Are attack ads against other candidates more persuasive than self-promotion ads in the 2016
presidential election?

Agenda: (to be written on the board) Materials:

Do Now: Review and Preview Envelopes

Activity: Forced Choice Transcript of campaign

advertisements
Activity: Calling All Potential Class Presidents assignment
Calling all potential class
Closure: Hand in assignment presidents assignment

Assessment
Formal: Calling all class presidents assignment

Informal: Walk around during forced choice

Hook:
1:00-1:05: Review and Preview
As students walk in the classroom, the teacher prompts students with two questions by writing them on
the board.
• What are the two types of campaign advertisements we looked at yesterday?
• How have campaign advertisements changed over time?
The teacher asks students to respond to these questions in their notebooks. These answers will not be
collected for assessment and serve only as a way to get students thinking about the previous days
activity. After the students have written down their response, the teacher may call upon students to
share what they wrote to informally assess student’s recollection of the previous lesson. After
reviewing, the teacher previews what today’s lesson will be about. Shifting from the evolution of
campaign advertisements over the last 50 years to the 2016 election, the teacher introduces how the
campaign advertisements of today's class will focus on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The teacher
may also choose to tell students that they will be making their own campaign advertisements using the
knowledge they gather during the two-day unit.
 30
Lesson Activities:
1:06-1:25: Forced Choice of 2016 Campaign Advertisements

1:06-1:10: The teacher instructs students to get into groups of four the next activity.
Most students will already be in groups of four based off of the desk configuration but
the teacher allows time for students to move to other tables in case they need to get into
a group of four. Once all students are in their group, the teacher will go around and give
each group an envelope containing transcripts from various 2016 campaign
advertisements. At this point the teacher describes how this activity will work.
• “Within each envelope are transcripts from the 2016 election. As a group, read
through these transcripts and try to identify if the advertisement promotes the
candidate or focuses on attacking the candidates opponent. With your group,
place the various advertisements into two piles depending on what type of
strategy you think the advertisement is using. Explain your reasoning with your
group members and be ready to explain and defend your decisions.”
1:11-1:18: As groups read through the transcripts and identify which candidate certain
advertisements support and what strategies these advertisements use, the teacher walks
around and informally assesses each group by asking them to explain their reasoning.
The teacher can gauge student understanding by listening to discussion and asking
groups about why they think an advertisement focuses on self-promotion or attack.
1:19-1:25: Once groups have finished categorizing the speeches into piles, the teacher
asks students to shuffle up their pieces of paper into one big pile now.
• “Now that you all have identified which strategy the advertisement is using, I
want you all to order the advertisements in front of you from least effective to
most effective. Discuss with your groups why you find certain advertisement
strategies more effective than others. There is no right or wrong order to this list
but be ready to discuss your group’s order and why you found some
advertisements more persuasive than others.”
As groups order the advertisements from least effective to most effective, the teacher
will walk around to different groups and ask them why they put certain advertisements
when they did. The teacher will try to spur student discussion about the effectiveness of
attack ads compared to campaign ads. Which ads do they find most effective? Is their
answer represented by the order of their advertisements in front of them? The teacher is
careful not to make it sound like there is a correct order to the advertisements and
instead focusing on having students critically think about the advertisements and
strategies they use to convince voters and gain their vote.

1:26-1:48: Calling All Potential Class Presidents assignment

1:26-1:28 Following the ordering of the 2016 campaign advertisements, the teacher
collects the envelops full of transcripts and passes out the assignment called “Calling All
Potential Class Presidents!” In partners, students will read through the activity and the
rubric for the assignment. The teacher lets students know that they have until the end of
class to work on this assignment. If students cannot complete this assignment, it is to be
completed as homework and collected at the beginning of next class.
 31

1:29-1:48: Students work with their partner to figure out a campaign advertisement for
the upcoming class president election. During this time, the teacher will be available to
answer any questions and clarify the assignment for groups that need it. The teacher will
also watch to assess student’s group work and use the rubric to judge partner
cooperation.

Closure:
1:49-1:50: As the class period is about to end, the teacher will let students know that it is time to stop
working and pack up. For groups who have completed their assignment and are ready to turn it in, the
teacher will come around and collect their assignment. For groups who have not completed their
assignment, the teacher reminds them that the assignment is due at the beginning of next class and
encourages partners to exchange contact information to finish the work outside of the classroom.
Students are welcome to use their iPads to make a Google doc or some other medium to share the
assignment with their partner to work on at home.

Homework:
Groups who have not completed the “Calling All Class Presidents” assignment must finish it for next
class. For groups who have completed the assignment, there is no homework.

 32

“Role Models”-Transcript of a Television Advertisement from the 2016 Election

This advertisement shows elementary school children watching the television of different clips
from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton speeches.

Donald Trump: “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they
were in a place like this? They’d be carried out in a stretcher folks.”

Donald Trump: “And you can tell them to go f**k themselves.”

Donald Trump: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t
lose any voters. Okay? Its like incredible.”

Donald Trump: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime,
they’re rapists.”

Donald Trump: “You know you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming
out of her wherever.”

Donald Trump: You got to see this guy. Aghhh, I don’t know what I said. Aghhh, I don’t
remember. He’s going like I don’t remember.”(Says this while making a seizing moment.)

Narrative Text: Our children are watching.

Narrative Text: What example will we set for them?

Hillary Clinton: “Our children and grandchildren will look back at this time at the choices we are
about to make, the goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by, and we need to make
sure that they can be proud of us”
 33

“All the Good”-Transcript of a Television Advertisement from the 2016 Election

Morgan Freeman Narration: Her church taught her to do all the good you can, for all the people
you can, for as long as you can.

Freeman: After high school she could have joined a high price law firm, but instead she worked
to reform juvenile justice in South Carolina, exposed racism in Alabama schools, registered
Latino voters in Texas and provided legal aid to families in Arkansas.

Freeman: Her life’s work has been about breaking barriers and so would her presidency which is
why for every American whose not being paid what their worth, whose held back by student debt
or a system tilted against them, and there are far too many of you. She understands that our
country can’t reach it’s potential, unless we all do, together, a stronger country.
 34

“Deplorables”-Transcript of an Advertisement from the 2016 Presidential Election

Narration: Speaking to wealthy donors, Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of Americans
deplorable.

Hillary Clinton: “You could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of
deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”

Narrator: People like you, you, and you, deplorable. You know what’s deplorable, Hillary
Clinton viciously demonizing hard-working people like you.
 35

Names:_________________________
Date:___________________________

The incumbent class president has called on all students to run against her for the class
presidency. Some goals she has accomplished include fund raising for the senior prom,
reduced school lunches, but she has failed to reach her goals for reducing the price on
band/music equipment and reducing the price for school athletics. Come up with a transcript
of what your campaign advertisement would look like and try to win the class presidency!

Task: It’s your turn to create your own political advertisement! Imagine you and a partner
were running a campaign together to be the Presidents of your class. Using the information
you have learned the past couple days, what types of goals would you include? Are there
any new and realistic goals you would introduce to the school setting? Why or why not?
Would it be a self-promotion or attack ad? Be sure to include a counter argument for the
incumbent class president as well as to appeal to voters who may differ in opinion from
you. Be creative, come up with your own slogan, and maybe even include a picture on the
back of this page that encompasses your campaign!

 36

 37

 38

Names:__________________________________
Rubric for Class President Campaign Advertisement
5 4 3 2-0 (Incomplete)
(AWESOME!!) (Very Good) (Satisfactory)
Students proficiently The student The student The student The student has not chosen a
created their own has clearly has chosen to has chosen a self-promotion or attack ad.
authentic political stated his/her use a self- self-promotion Their goals are confusing and
campaign and slogan goals and a promotion or or attack ad. unclear and the advertisement
using their own ideas. slogan for attack ad. The The student’s does not persuade voters to
The student has their class student’s goals goals are vote for the student.
acknowledged their presidency. are apparent, somewhat
opponents views and They have but there may unclear and
has taken a specific clearly chosen be little there is little
side: attack or self- an attack or reflection to to no
promotion. self-promotion their rival’s reflection
ad and has views. They about their
given counter may or may rival views.
arguments for not include a
their rivals slogan.
views/voters
who may not
share same
ideology
Both student’s views Both student’s The group may The group was The group did not work
and ideas are clearly split up the have had a few unable at together in a cohesive manner,
demonstrated during work evenly, issues but times to agree were disruptive to other
this exercise. came to overall both on certain groups and the classroom. The
mutually partners points and views of one student were
acceptable worked required the only shown.
decisions in together teacher to help
the face of evenly. There guide their
disagreement, may have been assignment.
and worked several The group did
together instances not work as
effectively. where one effectively as
student did desired
more legwork.
 39

This piece is free of Writing is free Writing may Writing has There is little to no thought or
spelling and of any spelling have some grammatical effort into the actual writing
grammatical errors. and spelling errors errors that piece of the assignment.
They have proofread grammatical and grammar detract from Errors are throughout the
for any errors. errors. issues, but the author’s transcript.
overall does main points.
not distract
from the
authors points

Final thoughts from teacher: