10/24/06
Ad-Watch Project
Attorney General Race: Pro Jerry
Brown Ad
I.
Description of the
Ad:
The ad chosen for this project was for the Jerry Brown
campaign. It has been aired on cable
television since late September, but was viewed via the internet on Google
Video for the purposes of this assignment.
The title of the ad was “Poochigian Gets ZERO on Environmental Issues”.
The ad starts out with slow, suspenseful music and stresses
the word “zero” in the middle of the screen in between the phrases “Want an
Attorney General” and “League of Conservation Voters” . Right after, there is a scene of Poochigian
and President Bush smiling and half-hugging each other. The ad goes on to mention how The League of
Conservation Voters gave Poochigian a “zero”, which was highlighted in red,
when it came to his stance on the environment.
After the ad mentions how Poochigian opposed or did not join
pro-environmental legislation, and accompanied with scenes of nature and chunks
of a glacier falling into the ocean, the music changes to lighter and higher
piano notes and then show Jerry Brown’s picture as the best choice for Attorney
General. Then, on the last scene where
Brown is shown from the chest up against a blue screen, it can be read that
Brown is endorsed by The League of Conservation Voters, the California Police
Chiefs Association, the Los Angles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
The link
to access this ad: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4095756659560365671&pr=goog-sl
Other
Notes Regarding this Ad[1]
This Ad:
-does say who paid for it; “Brown for Attorney General”
-does not direct the
viewer to take a specific action
-the ad does not mention words like “elect”, “support”, “vote
for”, “defeat”, or “reject”
-does provide a phone number, mailing address, or website
address
-in my judgment, has the purpose of attacking a candidate
and contrasting candidates
-the candidate being promoted in this ad does not narrate
his own ad
- is not intended to be humorous
-does not cite supporting sources like footnotes, to
support various claims
-does not have an American flag does not appear on the ad
-has President George W. Bush; he is not vocally mentioned
but his image does appear with the candidate that is being attacked
-the central figure in this ad, although negatively, is
Poochigian
-the favored candidate does not appear with supporting
actors
-the primary language in the ad, except for the end of the
ad where the favored candidate is mentioned, is negative
II. Techniques:
The
Techniques Noticed in this Ad Were as Follows:
Transfer[2]:
This ad includes negative scenes or images, in this case
two especially, that could easily be transferred to Poochigian. The first scene that connects Poochigian to a
negative image is when the picture of he and George W. Bush half-hugging each
other is shown. Although Bush is the
President of the United States, his administration is currently suffering low
approval ratings on behalf of the American public, including growing criticisms
of his tactics when it comes to the war in the Middle East. In this picture, Poochigian can easily be
perceived as a complete supporter of Bush and his controversial legacy although
there is no specific link mentioned or proven in the ad between Bush and
Poochigian.
The second negative image that seems
to transfer onto Poochigian is the chunk of ice falling off a glacier into the
ocean. This image implies that
Poochigian’s policy towards environmental issues makes him a direct contributor
to global warming. Although it is
mentioned that Poochigian did not support some global warming legislation, it
is another thing to say that Poochigian contributes directly to global
warming. But this negative image
transfers that idea to him.
Fear[3]:
Since the main criticism of
Poochigian in this ad is that he is not supportive of environmental issues,
there is an underlying message of fear.
This message of fear makes it seem as if voting for Poochigian would
lead to environmental doom. The better
action, which the ad states, would be to vote for Jerry Brown. It is implied that voting for Jerry Brown
would help to prevent environmental disaster.
2 Logical Fallacies[4]:
A. Premise 1: Poochigian does not support legislation to
protect the environment, because, as mentioned in the ad, “he opposed tougher
standards for air and water quality”, “was given a zero percent rating on
behalf of the League of Conservation Voters”, and “opposed the historic bipartisan
agreement to lower the effects of global warming”.
Premise 2: People
who hate the environment do not support pro-environment legislation.
Conclusion:
Poochigian must hate the environment since he does not support
pro-environment legislation.
B. Premise 1: Poochigian, as portrayed in this ad, does not
support the environmental legislation mentioned in the ad
Premise 2: Jerry
Brown is stated as a better choice for Attorney General because “he will always
protect our environment”.
Conclusion: Since Poochigian
does not support the pro-environmental legislation that is mentioned in the ad,
Jerry Brown has to be the obvious better choice.
III. Ad Watch:
Type of
Ad:
This can be classified as a negative ad. It encourages the audience to view Poochigian
negatively because of his low rating with the League of Conservation Voters and
for not supporting specific environmental legislation.
Context:
Jerry Brown’s campaign attempts to
appeal to those voters who hold environmental issues high on their priority
list. By making Poochigian, his opponent
for the Attorney General seat, look bad on environmental issues, he makes
himself look more promising for those voters that vote based on environmental
issues. Instead of Brown choosing to
make a general criticism of his opponent, he decides to negatively focus on one
specific aspect of Poochigian.
Poochigian’s campaign ads, like the
one my partner on this project did, are similar in the aspect that they choose
to focus on a specific trait of Jerry Brown’s political career. In the ad my partner analyzed, Poochigian
chooses to focus on Brown’s business policy and not on a more general criticism
of Brown.[5]
On a
Scale of 1-10:
Truthfulness:
In this ad, it is stated that
Poochigian specifically “sides with polluters and opposes tougher standards for
air and water quality” and, that “he rejected sound science and Poochigian
opposed the historic bipartisan global warming agreement.” Also, it strongly mentions that the
California League of Conservation Voters gave Poochigian a zero percent rating. Although the ad does make these claims, there
is no footnote to give credibility to these statements.
I had to do a search to find out if
these two key claims were true. In this
search, it was found that Senator Chuck Poochigian was given a rating of 9%
when it came to the approval of the California League of Conservation Voters in
2005. In that same year, the Sierra Club
was gave him a rating of 0%. The only year that he received a 0% rating
was in 2003.[6] Although Poochigian does have an overall very
low rating when it comes to environmental issues, this ad was not completely
truthful in stating when Poochigian
got a 0% rating.
Also, according to his profile
description on the government website for Republican Senators, it mentions that
Poochigian did support the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed
Protection and Flood Protection Act of 1999.
So to just broadly say that Poochigian does not support water quality
legislation would not be completely true.[7]
As far as opposing the bipartisan
global warming agreement, which is also known as AB32 and was signed into law
not too long ago, that can be proven to be true. According to an article in the San Francisco
Chronicle, Poochigian is seen as a great enemy by various environmental groups
and leaders. In fact, it is considered
to be his weakest point when it comes to his political career[8].
Considering that the truth is
stretched in some parts, but overall not too far off the mark, I give the
truthfulness of this ad an 8.
Effectiveness:
Although this ad did not use
extensive graphics or fancy technology in the ad, the fact that they were able
to promote the very negative image that a very dominant and reputable
environmental organization holds of Poochigian is very convincing. Also, the very cozy image of Bush and
Poochigian helps Brown since Bush is suffering such low ratings right now. Overall, for effectiveness, I give this a 9.
How
Informative is it?
Although this ad does give various
information on Poochigian’s track record when it came to environmental policy
and reputation, it did not give specific information. For example, it did not give the bill number
of the Global Warming Agreement and it did not mention the specific year that
Poochigian received that zero percent approval rating from the California
League of Conservation Voters. Overall,
I give the informative manner of this ad a 7.
IV
Resources:
For more information regarding the information mentioned in
this report, the following websites can be utilized:
·
http://turnerlearning.com/cnn/coldwar/cw_prop2.html
·
http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/tvadvertising/Coding%20the%20Ads.htm
[1] All these noted characteristics were answers to the questions listed in the Wisconsin Advertising Project which can be found at: http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/tvadvertising/Coding%20the%20Ads.htm
[2] This term is being utilized from the Student Propaganda Handout that can be found at:
[3] Ibid.
[4]This term is being utilized from the Student Propaganda Handout that can be found at:
[5]This ad from the Poochigian campaign can be viewed at:
[6] This information can be found at:
http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=BS026893