Campaign ads focus on image, not substance

Stacy J. Willis

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 8:12 a.m.

Fade in:

U.S. Senate candidate John Ensign is strolling down a snowy road with a couple of guys wearing baseball caps. In the voice-over Ensign says, "My great grandparents were miners."

Cut to a vinyl-boothed diner in which Ensign is sharing a cup of coffee with a portly fellow clad in a law enforcement uniform. Voice-over: "I believe hard work, character and integrity matter."

Before the 60-second TV ad is over, Ensign's campaign team has juxtaposed his image with puppies, small children and senior citizens -- and established that Ensign believes in "values."

Ads like Ensign's first, increasingly trickling onto the airwaves in advance of the November election, frame public discourse about political candidates in Nevada and the nation.

Political advertising is a billion-dollar industry that is growing each election cycle -- broadcast stations are expected to sell a record $600 million worth of air time for political ads this year -- with an increase not only in candidate-sponsored ads but in ads produced and paid for by special-interest groups.

And while the control of image seems to be more critical to campaigning than ever, "in terms of substantive information, it's hard to get much out of a campaign ad," Tim Fackler, UNLV political science professor, said.

"People get a composite impression of candidates from ads. It is usually based on feelings, on images, on recognition of a few key issues.

"Is that an effective campaign? Yes. It's just not the information you need to make public policy. The ads are about forming people's impressions of the candidates and the issues," Fackler said.

"But there is a serious question about whether that is enough information to inform a decision."

Most voters get the majority of their political news from TV -- either ads or news programs. Print news plays less of a roll in influencing voter decisions, Fackler said.

"But the political coverage in local TV news across the United States is limited. It's just not the stuff that sells commercial advertising. Politics is much less approachable than other subjects, like crime," Fackler said.

One public interest group -- the national Alliance for Better Campaigns -- is trying to encourage TV news programs to take over where the ads leave off.

The alliance, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, gave a $20,000 grant to the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada to encourage local TV stations to air five minutes of any type of "candidate-centered" political coverage every night during the month preceding all primary and general elections.

In the month preceding last Super Tuesday, TV stations nationwide averaged 37 seconds of political coverage between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m., according to the Alliance for Better Campaigns.

"That's not enough. Ads alone don't allow for real candidate genuineness," said Kathleen Dickinson, project coordinator for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

"Ads are airbrushed and pretty. But as more money is being spent on ads, less time is being devoted by TV news stations to political coverage."

Thus far, Dickinson has had limited success in getting commitments from Las Vegas Valley stations to air five minutes of coverage.

KVBC Channel 3 and KVVU Channel 5 have yet to meet with her, Dickinson said.

KTNV Channel 13 and KLAS Channel 8 did not formally agree to the five-minute commitment, but did agree to air program segments specifically dedicated to analyzing local campaigns, she said.

Gene Greenberg, general manager of Channel 3, said that TV stations have to maintain the delicate balance between keeping viewer interest and supplying political information.

"If viewers are told that for the next five minutes we will air a debate between two local candidates, they'll probably turn to 'South Park,' " Greenberg said. "But I still think all the stations do a good job of covering races."

Further complicating the mix is the fact that TV stations get a significant portion of revenue during election years from political ads.

The price of ads in the Las Vegas area ranges from $300 to $3,000, depending on the station, length of ad, and the time it is aired. Price gouging is prohibited by the Federal Election Commission during election cycles; but political ads draw prime market rates.

In the 1998 election cycle, political ads accounted for roughly 10 percent of Channel 3's revenue, Greenberg said.

"In terms of laying blame for ads exceeding political coverage, we've just got a very complicated system," Fackler said.

"We ask the media to provide the public with information, whether or not it is profitable. The media is a commercial enterprise. There is no requirement that the media do that public service. And if they did, would audiences click their remote controls to something better? Probably."

Creating image

Political ads, then, carry a significant portion of campaign communication weight. They not only define the candidate, but identify which issues will be debated, while leaving out more troublesome issues. "You need TV ads to raise the subjects you want people thinking about," Pete Ernaut, Ensign's campaign manager, said. "You want to get out there and set the tone."

Republican Ensign's team did just that by being the first to air congressional ads this election cycle -- unless one counts Ensign opponent Ed Bernstein's law firm's ads, which conspicuously changed from a "we'll sue for you" message to an "Ed cares" message late last year. Democrat Bernstein's campaign team declined to discuss their advertising production in depth.

"The policy is just not to talk to reporters about process," Kelly Benander, Bernstein's spokesperson, said. The Bernstein campaign has hired Washington, D.C., media consulting firm Struble, Oppel, Donovan and is expected to launch ads soon.

Ensign organizers also hired an out-of-state media consultant -- David Weeks of San Antonio, Texas.

Ernaut said it is critical to have a media consultant in on initial brainstorming "so that he sees the campaign as vividly as the candidate does. He needs to feel it."

Weeks writes the ad copy, and Ernaut and a team of consultants whittle it down to a final script. "You need a feeling -- the art side -- and a message. One of the traps of doing ads is getting too much into the art side of it and forgetting the message. The world is littered with losing campaigns whose ads won awards for the sheer beauty of the spot," said Ernaut.

Ad consultants like Weeks keep shelves full of generic footage that can play in any candidate's ad depending on the type of imagery the commercial demands.

"If you need a particular image, he's got it stocked," Ernaut said. "When you're in the mix of things, sometimes you don't have the time to shoot again so you keep a tremendous amount of 'B-roll' footage so you can make an ad quickly."

Sometimes one generic political ad is used by several candidates in different markets -- that is, an ad that shows desert images and touts a candidate who is "concerned about the environment" might be used by both a Nevada candidate and an Arizona candidate, with one difference -- a frame of the candidate's face and name has been changed.

Controlling debate

Candidates rarely have exclusive control of the advertising communication with voters.

Political parties spend unlimited amounts of soft money -- donations to party committees by individuals or groups -- on ads to support or oppose candidates, so long as those ads do not expressly call for a vote for or against a candidate.

Individuals and interest groups also have a hand in the game through independent expenditures that buy ads expressly to call for the election or defeat of a candidate, but which are not coordinated with a candidate's campaign committee. There is no limit on how much someone can spend to endorse a candidate, so long as that amount is disclosed according to federal regulations.

The public generally won't distinguish between independent ads and a candidate-sponsored ad, Fackler said.

Fackler said that in order to sort through all of the ads, their sources and their agendas, a voter would have to spend "a lot more time than most people have.

"It's hard for people to look at political ads and take the time to bother to exercise the mental machinery it takes to be skeptical.

"Still, I try to convey that skepticism is the most useful approach."

Stacy J. Willis is a reporter for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4011 or by e-mail at willis@lasvegassun.com.