For this week's personal blog post, I'd like you to consider the persuasive qualities of robocalls, yard signs, and bumperstickers. What do you think is the value of these persuasive acts? What rhetorical strategies do they typically employ? Who is the target audience for them? And by asking you about all three I don't mean to imply that the same response applies to each. Do they have things in common? Are they different in important ways?
post to your personal blog by 9/10
"Campaigning to the Bottom of the Electoral Barrel: Yard Signs, Bumper Stickers, and Worst of All, Robocalls"
I want bad things to happen to candidates who make robocalls. Really, really bad things. First of all, I'm on the Do Not Call registry, which means I DON'T WANT YOU TO CALL ME. And if you're going to irritate me by calling during dinner, or worse yet, during those brief and precious moments of my kid's naptime, at least have the decency to be a human being and not a robot. For years now I've been trying to figure out why candidates use robocalls. I just can't figure out how they persuade anyone. If you have any self-respect at all as a candidate, do you really want the vote of someone who is persuaded by a robocall? I can see how they have some "get out the vote" potential to remind people to vote or to remind people of how scary the opposition is (and thus motivate them to vote), but then couldn't you just save them for the last couple of days of the campaign? Why should we be subjected to them for weeks and months? Selecting a candidate isn't the only persuasive act at stake; your selection doesn't matter if you don't bother to go vote. But if I were ever truly on the fence about two candidates, the existence of a robocall would quickly make my decision clear.
Yard signs and bumper stickers are far less offensive, although again, it's hard to imagine them actually swinging someone's vote. The only scenario I can imagine is that you see all of your neighbors supporting a particular candidate then you decide to support that candidate too...because you're stupid and lazy. Didn't anyone ever teach you about peer pressure in school?
I was actually quite surprised to learn, in 2008, that one campaign was pretty much auctioning off yard signs to the highest bidder. You couldn't just receive a yard sign; you had to earn it by volunteering for the campaign. Really? You want me to pay you for free advertising in my yard? Yet these yard signs seemed to have become status symbols--people wanted them and were so proud of their candidate that they were willing to do whatever it took to "earn" one and display it. (Note that I said "people,", not "me." I remained yard sign-less in 2008.) I'd argue then that bumper stickers and yard signs are most persuasive in their ability to create a feeling of community and generate some degree of excitement about a candidate.
In case you were wondering, no, I have not been exercising my believing muscle in this post. I will now therefore concede that I find yard signs for issues to be useful, and occasionally for unknown candidates for local offices. Sometimes you don't year much about issues until you hit the polls, but the presence of issue-supporting yard signs alerts me before the election so that I can take the time to make a decision.
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ReplyDeleteDuring the election time period, there are a lot of ways to advertise yourself. Robocalls, yards signs, and bumper stickers are all effective in different ways. Robocalls are probably the least effective. Although all u you have to do is hang up, you still have the beginning of the message in your head. If you are not really into politics this may help you come more familiar with the election.the persuasion standpoint of the robocalls, i believe do not do much for earning votes. It is a little bit of a pain, but it still gets the election feel in the air.
ReplyDeleteBumper stickers would be the second most important. Bumper stickers are not a huge ordeal in the first place. When your out on the road you do not see bumper stickers on every car you see, but if you do see one they usually stand for something they believe in strongly. Cars are expensive pieces of machinery, to put a sticker on it is not worth it unless you know you want it to be seen. This lets us know that when we see someone with a campaign sticker on there car, we know that there are strong feelings put towards this sticker. This makes everyone realize that they are not a joke and that they have people on there side. This could be appealing to younger drivers who are not very interested in politics yet and get there brain thinking about it.
The last and what I believe the most important piece of persuasion is the yard sign. The yard sign is there for everyone to see at all times, which is why I think it is the most effective. Yard signs are not particularly small, so if you put it in your yard people are going to see it. When you see something everyday it becomes part of you routine, so when you see a yard sign that says vote for Bob Smob, you know that people are serious about there vote. Not all, but a lot of these households are filled with families. A father or mother of a family who sees these signs in peoples yards also get the vibe that they must be for the good. Since a family is voting for them, they will think that it cannot be a terrible choice if someone wants them running in office while they have to take care of their family. In the end all three are just propaganda for the campaign in hopes to earn votes, but they are all definitely effective in different ways.