I was watching “The Today Show” this morning and they had a segment called This Years Best and Worst Political Ads. Within this segment, Matt Lauer, NBC’s Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, and the chairman of the ad agency Deutsch Incorporated all sat down and discussed several political ads from this year. A couple things immediately came to mind from class, but the one topic I have chosen to talk about is free media. Free media is exactly what it sounds like. A politician is covered in a news story; therefore their name, ideas, and beliefs are being reiterated for them. Christine O’Donnell was the first politician covered in the segment. She has a new political ad out, and all three men said it was well done. Next is Joe Manchin, the governor of West Virginia. His ad did not go over so well with the three guys, but then again, Joe did just get free media. The next ad shown was of Joe Miller who is running for Senate in Alaska. The guys really loved his ad because Joe chose to be humorous. Joe Miller did a mock “Old Spice” ad. You have to see it, it’s very funny. The moral of the story is no matter if the ads were effective or not, each of the candidates received free media. So, someone like me who lives in Ohio and would not get the chance to see some of these ads got the chance to see them on “The Today Show” this morning.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/
It is really cool that you were able to see the different political ads from candidates from different states. This is a great example of free media because "The Today Show" is watched by the masses and somebody from any one of these states could have seen them if they had not seen them before. Another concept that this demonstrates is that it is not just free media but it is earned media because of how the ads were made, whether being a good political ad or bad. They gained publicity because their use of communicating their messages. Even the ads that got viewed negatively still got national attention. Good post.
ReplyDeleteIt is like the saying any media is good media. I did mine on the O'Donnell and her media was earned and also free, and she was receiving tons of coverage because she stated earlier in her life that she dabbled in witch craft. So even though people may think that is a little crazy, her name is still out there and being mentioned or talked about.
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