Knock Off the Imagery

For political candidates it should come as something of quick, quick, quick relief to learn that their high-priced campaign ads on TV really pay off. Or so the American Psychological Association convention was told last week. Charles Atkin, a Michigan State University professor who has studied elections in Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan, noted that more than 60% of the people whom he surveyed claimed that TV ads helped them decide which candidate to vote for.

Thomas Patterson, a political scientist at Syracuse University, who studied the impact of TV ads in the 1972 presidential campaign, found that they tend to stick in the mind longer than commercial plugs. "Most Americans feel that choosing a President deserves more consideration than selecting a brand of antacid." When asked to describe a political ad during the 1972 campaign, 56% of the viewers were able to give a full description of it--twice the number who are usually able to recall a commercial plug.

What influenced the voters was the positions taken by the candidates rather than the imagery that so concerns media consultants. "The imagery that candidates try to project does not work on the voters," says Patterson. He frets a bit about the overuse of imagery in the current campaign--for example, all the footage of Jimmy Carter traipsing through the peanut fields. The professor advises both parties: "Knock off the imagery and give the people the kind of information by which they can best judge the candidates."

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