Key quotes

Key quotes (about media, politics, advertising)

"Ads produced by ordinary folks (are) the future of the Internet.
The handheld camera and producing it at no cost mean that people
not tied to political structures can create content. The moment they
get exposure...they have formed a political communication venue
that can be very effective." Kathleen Hall Jamison, quoted in Adweek

"We're in a sound-bite world, and you have to work to get people's attention." Scott Howell, quoted in The Nation

"I can tell you that without a doubt there has been more misleading ads on television seen by more Americans for a longer period of time than in any presidential campaign ever," Brooks Jackson, Annenberg Political FactCheck of the University of Pennsylvania, read story here

"Political commercials pretend to be like documentaries, but they use all the techniques of fiction filmmaking, including scripts, performances, and music," David Schwartz of the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York. (read more here)

"Advertising is essentially truthful, except political advertising, which ... gets worse every year ... (It's) just the artful assembling of nominal facts into hideous, outrageous lies."
(Bob Garfield, AdAge columnist, quoted in PBS' THE PERSUADERS)

"When we study commercials and speeches, we talk about the issues and the quality of the message,... It's not just about political ideology, it's also about the art of creating a persuasive message."
Kyle Marquette, Hersey High School, Arlington Heights, IL

from: news story

"We know from lots of good geeky political science research that ads that are able to stimulate emotions are more likely to be effective."
Kenneth Goldstein, political advertising expert, from news story

"Research shows (voters) get more information on the issues from political ads on TV spots than they get from TV news or the debates," said Lynda Lee Kaid, professor of telecommunications at the University of Florida. from news story

"The buzz about these (Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) ads creates more
of a furor than do the actual ads themselves,"
said Zachary White, professor of politics at Univ San Fran. story here

"The thing to remember about these ads is that they cost a fortune,
not just these ads, but advertising in general, and it raises the cost of campaigns, and the money comes overwhelmingly from the wealthiest handful of Americans."
Robert McChesney, University of Illinois, media scholar, from NPR "Travis Smiley" Program, Aug. 24, 2004

"Most of what TV viewers learn [about congressional candidates] is not
from local news but from commercials," says Norman Solomon, author
of The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News Read the entire story here

"This presidential election is being concentrated on 19,20 battleground states. There's 210 media markets in the US and we're seeing advertising in only 93 of those media markets, and that translates into only 40% of Americans being potentially exposed to television advertising.."
Ken Goldstein, Wisconsin Advertising Project, as interviewed on PBS Newshour 7/19/04

"Candidates are pretty much sold like toothpaste today with marketing
techniques taken from the business world," Ken Warren, political
communicator at St. Louis University. Read full story here

"It's not a perfect world. Ads are about selectively using information."
Ken Goldstein, political scientist and ad scholar, UW-Madison Read story here

"If you want to learn about a candidate, a 30-second ad is not the best place to go!" Christian Grose, a campaign media expert at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin Read full story here.

"Political advertising is now the major means by which candidates for the presidency communicate their messages to voters," writes Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. "As a conduit of this advertising, television attracts both more candidate dollars and more audience attention than radio or print." Read more here.

" Television is not a gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office without presenting themselves well on it."
Roger Ailes (media expert) to Richard Nixon, 1968

"I think the American people will be shocked by such contempt for their intelligence. This isn't Ivory Soap versus Palmolive."
Adlai Stevenson, 1952