Effective Political Advertising in the 21st Century

As J.J. mentioned in his post this increasingly politically active generation will no doubt change the political landscape of the 21st century. In this past election we have already seen several campaigns attempts to reach out and tap the powerful force that is the younger generation. As J.J. also mentioned 66% of people under 30 voted for Barack Obama. This shows not only a platform that tended to agree with the younger generation but also an extremely effective targeted campaign to make communications with this group. How did the campaign reach out to such a large number of the youth? Effective advertisement of the candidate through the mediums that this particular people group uses most, specifically the Internet (social networking, youtube and email) and cell phones (text messages, calls and apps). During the campaign roughly 13 million people were on the email list for the Obama campaign, these people received as a whole over 1 billion emails over the course of the campaign. (Vargas) Social networking was also used to communicate with large numbers of supporters as well as better determine the preferences of the voters and rally more active support. Obama had over 5 million friends on over 15 different social networking sites, this includes 3 million friends on facebook alone.(Vargas) These are just a few of the staggering numbers that the Obama campaign showed as far as the use of popular media in a political campaign.
Another campaign that pulled staggering numbers using social media was Ron Paul. Running as virtually an independent in the GOP Ron Paul's grassroots campaign was one of the largest of any candidate. This was through an effectively run website that allowed supporters to sign up to receive information about the course of the campaign as well as ways to support the candidate. Also, the site featured other ways to help and be kept informed by becoming facebook friends with the "Campaign for Liberty" and Ron Paul himself. YouTube also played an important role with media exposure being as Ron Paul received very little mention on television or in newspapers. This could be part of the reason most younger voters on the republican ticket leaned towards Ron Paul. In fact in a breakdown of supporters by age group Ron Paul doubled the support of any other republican candidate in the 18-24 age range despite the other candidates being more "mainstream". (usaelectionpolls.com)

What does this show? This shows the power of the politically active youth and demonstrates to future political hopefuls that they must be able to effectively reach out to this group in order to succeed in their campaign. Just as the GOP saw in the 2008 election it is essential to be able to effectively communicate with new voters to earn their support and I believe all candidates will no doubt heed this lesson in the next election or will surely be disappointed with the outcome.

-PsyCHN

P.S.
For anyone who wanted a full look at the social media numbers from the Obama Campaign











(Source: Edelman Report)

We'll be arguing soon...

After reading the first two posts, I'm neither disappointed nor surprised to find a great deal of bias in the voice of the founders of this site. I doubt any unfair management will occur, but the opinions and ideas of the contributors lean one direction more than another. This is great. This is perfect. This is just what we need. We're in need of fervent, enlightened, and zealous debate of the issues that face our generation. Without 'strict scrutiny' of these issues, we'll find ourselves following in the footsteps of our fathers and formulating their own theories--only because they did. And as intelligent individuals, we will find division amongst ourselves when we examine ideas and processes through the lenses of our own backgrounds. Without this division, no conclusions would be made--no unique understandings held--no true opinions formed.

I hope we divide. I hope we can't always agree. If we're going to ever find a 'more perfect' democratic amalgam as the next generation, we've got to find disagreement first. Not the same disagreement as when thousands of young Americans squabbled last November over why Sarah Palin was really that stupid, how Barack Obama was the great Savior, or whether or not John McCain was older than Moses. We need disagreement that engages the Left and Right-so we find out why the Democrat or Republican (or wayward Green Party man) thinks as he does--because when we understand how our opposition thinks, we can truly find some form of agreement amongst ourselves and make principal become policy that works for most.

We'll be arguing soon. We'll need it.
-RW

Will an increasingly politically active generation change the political landscape?

As this blog is oriented towards all people interested in the “Next Generation's Republic,”and young adults in particular, it seems fitting to ask: “Will the young adults who have shown to be increasingly socio-politically active change the political landscape of America?” In a word—absolutely. “This year, 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.---PEW, November 12, 2008 (Carville, 2009)” That is a big percentage of young people voting for Barack Obama and there was an amazing volume of young people voting: period. “CIRCLE’s preliminary estimate, based on the National Exit Polls, suggest that youth turnout rose in 2008 for the third consecutive presidential election. An estimated 23 million young Americans under the age of 30 voted, an increase of 3.4 million compared with 2004. CIRCLE estimates that youth voter turnout rose to between 52 percent and 53 percent, an increase of 4 to 5 percentage points over CIRCLE’s estimate based on the 2004 exit polls. (CIRCLE 2009)”

There seems to be a positive trend in the number of young adults voting and if the STAT from 2009 is any indication they are voting for Democrats in increasingly greater numbers. The fact that young adults are becoming increasingly active in politics means they could be a decisive voting group in elections especially if this trend spills over into local & state elections. Why aren't young adults voting for republicans? “[...] The fact is, Democrats had a 19-point advantage among young voters. In 2004, the Democrats had only a 2-point advantage in party identification. In any other year, Republicans might be able to dismiss their disadvantage among young voters with the oft-repeated claim that youth simply tend to be more liberal than their parents, but this year they've got 19 points to explain away.” I think this large gap exists because the GOP is failing to entice younger voters with their (more or less) hard-line stance on social issues which seem to win-over older voters. In the 2009 Presidential election Republicans were on the wrong side of several issues, including the following: “the economy; the war in Iraq; and the environment. (Carville 2009)”

If the GOP is trying to reach out to young adults I'm lost as to how. Furthermore, as an opposition party the Republicans have seemed weak and unorganized. It seems as if the GOP may lose an entire generation and if current trends continue they may very well lose several. “What's worse news for the Republicans is the fact that youth didn't just vote for Obama last year—they volunteered, knocked on doors, distributed pamphlets, and drove other people to the polls. That's the type of investment in a candidate and party that cements political leanings. (Carville 2009)” Will the increasingly politically active young adult population change the political landscape? In a word—absolutely! (J.J.)