The Spot: The Rise of Political Advertising on Television

Diamond, Edwin; Bates, Stephen

ISBN 10: 0262540436 / ISBN 13: 9780262540438

Published by MIT Press, Cumberland, Rhode Island, U.S.A., 1984

About this Item

The cover has some minor surface wear along the top and bottom edges.

Seller Inventory # 064336

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Spot: The Rise of Political Advertising on Television
• Publisher: MIT Press, Cumberland, Rhode Island, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262540436
• ISBN 13: 9780262540438
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Third Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • American History
  • Television
  • Politics

About this title

Synopsis

Political advertising on television represents a form of persuasion scarcely thirty years old. Already, however, the short thirty-to-sixty-second political commercial, or polispot, has developed both distinct rhetorical modes and distinct visual styles. The polispot has also grown to dominate political campaigns in this country, especially in the large states and in national presidential elections. For example, of the $29 million in federally allotted campaign funds spent by Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980, fully half went into political advertising, mainly on television.

The Spot is a rich, provocative examination of the polispot form. It begins with the first spot use of television in the Eisenhower-Stevenson campaign of 1952 and carries through to the Reagan advertising and marketing campaign of 1980 (and, prospectively, of 1984). It discusses such famous—and infamous—examples of political television advertising as Richard Nixon's "Checkers," Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" spot, and Gerald Ford's "Feelin' Good About America" series.

The book contains interviews of the chief media practitioners and political marketers and analyzes the effects of their handiwork on the outcome of campaigns. Scores of storyboards and illustrations from key campaigns are also analyzed, each according to the authors' pioneering typology of the five polispot rhetorical modes.

From the Back Cover

'The Spot will go a long way toward helping the reader understand the televised political advertising that's about to swamp us.' -The Washington Post