Hypnotist-in-Chief
Sometimes it seems that political ads are crude throwbacks to the days before modern advertising science. Hackish play on emotion and raw demagogeury are par for the course.
However, a new Kerry ad makes me think that the political campaignsare at the forefront in pushing the science of influence. The ?you will lose? ad is using a hypnotic technique which I think is artful and could be quite effective.
Now, to understand why this ad is so clever, you have to understand that this is an incredibly close election. Voter turnout in key states could easily influence this election, and although much is made of ?get out the vote? drives, anything that suppresses one opponent’s vote by discouraging him to arrive at the polls is just as effective as getting one of your own supporters to the polls on voting day. One way to effectively suppress voter turnout is to convince people that their candidate has no chance of winning. We had a very visible demonstration of this on election night of 2000, when the major networks declared a Gore victory before polls had closed in Florida. This pronouncement caused large statistical dropoffs in Republicans going to the polls, both in Florida, and in other places where the polls were still open, because many figured there was no point.
Next, take the context of the ad. When John Kerry delivered this line during his acceptance speech, I knew that it had been specifically crafted for use in ads (and specifically ads directed at opponents). Ostensibly in reference to terrorists, Kerry said, ?You will lose, and we will win; the future does not belong to fear, it belongs to freedom!?. This line stood out, because it did not fit the rest of the speech. He specifically started with ?You will lose?, not with ?we will win?. He specifically directed at a lonely ?you?, opposed to a ?we?, with the ?you? excluded. This is the only place in the speech which uses that construction. In fact, the ?you vs. everyone else? construction is uncharacteristic for practically any political speech, because it is so jarring to the listener. It is direct, in-your-face, andsuggests exclusion and separation. If the statement were meant only to be played to the democratic convention, it never would have been worded this way, because the embedded suggestion is not something you want to amplify within your supporters.
However, the strategy is to run this ad on conservative channels in battleground states. The overtly stated reason is to show that ?Kerry is tough on terrorism?. The conscious mind will pick up the realization that ?this ad is about America vs. terrorists?, but the message that will go like a laser beam to the unconscious mind is ?YOU WILL LOSE; YOU CANNOT HAVE THIS; MOVE ALONG, THERE IS NOTHING TO GAIN BY VOTING?. To the extent that people feel in their hearts that their candidate will lose anyway, they will be more likely to stay away from the polls. Using an embedded command to create this feeling and thereby suppressvotesis truly novel.
I don’t think Kerry came up with this on his own. I would like to meet the person who did this.