The University of Connecticut’s Political Media class welcomed guest speaker J. Toscano on Thursday, Nov. 7, to discuss how media is used in elections.
Toscano is a founding partner of Backstory Strategies, a political media consulting group that has helped to create numerous political advertisements. He began his presentation by describing what media consultants do, which is to help clients with their media presence through advertisements, social media and other platforms.
In the case of elections, the first step for media consultants is to assess the race their client is in. “We looked at voting history, the district or in the state. We look at what’s happening demographically and the political climate,” Toscano said.
But beyond the race itself, Toscano and his team research what their client’s strengths and weaknesses are as a candidate. They do the same for opposing candidates as well, and begin to set up their next step, a strategic roadmap of their client’s campaign.
Setting a strategy involves polling, qualitative research, setting message architecture and eventually advertising. Toscano highlighted the ways in which media is consumed and how each one affects a different demographic.
Advertising on broadcast TV involves cherry-picking programs to reach specific audiences. Using satellite/cable or radio would narrowcast the advertisements demographically or geographically. However, digital or streaming platform content is much more targeted and relies on individualized engagement.
With the recent presidential election, Toscano said that a lot of money goes towards advertisements and campaigning on both sides. “So, this year, just on the presidential one, $10 billion has been spent on presidential campaign.”
Not all platforms are created equal, however.
“TV costs a lot more money than digital, so it’s not worth spending the same amount of money,” he said.
The content of ads is the fun part, according to Toscano. The production of a political ad is like other types of ads. It involves creating narrative arcs by brainstorming positive storylines, preemptively defending against attacks and leveraging vulnerabilities. The production aspects include imagery, music, voices, special effects and testing the ads against test groups.
“We want to make sure that ads get the happy effect that we need. For me, a big part of effective advertising is a king of ‘stickiness,’” Toscano said.
Their goal is to connect with voters and be memorable for their audiences, which means breaking through the countless political and commercial advertisements we see every day.
“We know that people have limited attention spans when we are interrupting their entertainment or sports or news or whatever they’re consuming,” he said. “And so, we want to make sure that they kind of walk away with that one key element, a piece of passage.”
He then went on to describe various types of advertisements that Backstory Strategies has made and published. Many political ads are positive and establish a core positioning or fundamental message of the candidate. These ads link to top voter concerns, provide insights into what drives the candidate and set the agenda and tone of their campaign.
Some ads provide the candidates’ values and are focused more on their motivations rather than the issues. These can be more personal ads, including an ad that showed Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) describing his views on gun laws after losing his father to gun violence.
Other ads go into the issues at play in the race, aligning candidates with solutions voters seek. Modeling ads “give the voters permission to do the right thing,” Toscano said. An example he showed was of an ad aimed at compelling Republican voters to vote on the Democratic choice, as it frames it as the right thing to do no matter what side you are on.
Negative ads are memorable for audiences, but the bar is set much higher for them. These ads use the credibility of others, imagery and personal stories to connect with voters on a gut level. Toscano said that audiences report that they hate them, but they are the most convincing to them as well. Negative ads can also backfire on the attacker, as it pits candidates against one another.
Response ads are responses to negative ads by opponents. Toscano’s presentation highlighted that “often attacks are best left without response.” But if you do make a response ad, you need to undercut the credibility of the attack without giving credence to the charge and reinforce your message frame.
At the end of his presentation, Toscano reiterated what the goal is for media consultants and their products. They strive to persuade and motivate voters. This is done by designing ads to inform and move voters toward your candidate and away from the opponent. But it’s also designed to get your supporters to vote in the first place.
He finished with a reflection on the ads from Kamala Harris’ campaign and said he wished they diversified their content, rather than focusing on one issue and relying heavily on it.