Blog #8: Pop Culture & Politics

For this week, try to find a representation of your candidate from outside the campaign, preferably one that is in pop culture and/or opinion-based. This could include your candidate as a character in a Saturday Night Live sketch, a representation of your candidate in a "Bad Lip Reading" sketch, an opinion piece (be it on television or written by a newspaper columnist) about your candidate or a satirical webpage or video.

How does this artifact describe your candidate? What does it say about your candidate? If you think of pop culture and satire as a caricature of your candidate, what features (be they physical or otherwise) are exaggerated? How does this artifact push back against the image the candidate seems to be wanting to create for him/herself (see your own blog #1 post .) Do you think this artifact effectively shapes/changes the image the candidate is trying to project?

If you have trouble writing enough about one artifact, you may choose two, just make sure you link to or embed these artifacts in your blog!

Your blog posts should be approx. 500 words. They should include links, images, multimedia, etc. More information is provided in an assignment sheet on Blackboard.

Blog #7: Advertising Strategy

Find some advertising done by your candidate during the 2016 campaign. Try to find at least 3-5 (you can use more) television or online ads. If you can find examples of other types of advertising (direct mail, outdoor, etc.) feel free to include those as well. (Note: The Living Room Candidate website will be very helpful for your television ads.)

What strategies do you see present in these ads? (You can pick them apart ad by ad, or look at the group of ads as one advertising campaign, your choice.) Are they attack ads or candidate-positive? Image ads or issue ads? Any incumbent or challenger strategies present? Gender strategies or differences? Give some analysis for why you think the strategies that you have identified were chosen.

Your blog posts should be approx. 500 words. They should include links, images, multimedia, etc. More information is provided in an assignment sheet on Blackboard.

Blog #6: Online Presence

Spend some time evaluating your candidate's campaign's online presence. Does s/he have a website? What social media platforms is s/he participating on right now (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.)? How active is your candidate on each of these platforms? Are there any viral videos or important online sites about your candidate (that the candidate and/or campaign/staff didn't create?)

Write about what you find. Then based on what your findings are, answer these questions: What did your candidate do well when creating his/her online presence? What could s/he have done better? What types of posts were the most interesting? What posts created the most engagement with followers/likers/etc.?

Your blog posts should be approx. 500 words. They should include links, images, multimedia, etc. More information is provided in an assignment sheet on Blackboard.