Friday, April 15, 2011
#6: Appeal to Spite
An appeal to spite is usually used to reject what someone believes has been seen in all the past elections with advertisements that rally against an opposing party. For example, Jerry Brown’s campaign used a brilliant advertisement on television that made the current governor and the Republican candidate, Meg Whitman, seem very unappealing. Jerry Brown’s campaign used an advertisement that contained many audio and visual clips of both Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meg Whitman separately, but each audio segment dictated phrases and sentences that were uttered by both individuals during both of their campaigns. They were 100% matched, word for word. The advertisement then questioned the public if this is what they desired. This was a brilliant smear move towards the Republican campaign – it demonstrated their lack of ability to fix California’s issues, and in essence, broken promises. This argument is an excellent argument, with a very convincing message. Due to the election results, I would say the advertisement did the job it was meant to do.
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I watched this campaign ad many times on television during the elections and each time I saw it I also thought that it was a well planned and thought out ad. Even though I have always believed that politicians spend way too much time bashing the other opponents and not enough time informing the public about their own campaigns, I do believe that this was one of the better smearing ads that I have seen. Even though Whitman and Schwarzenegger are two completely different people, because of the way that the ad portrayed them, and showed that they said that same things it made people think twice about her as a governor and, as you stated, vote in the opposite direction.
ReplyDeleteGood job explaining what an appeal to spite is, it can be difficult to understand. Appealing to spite is trying to get things done by using ill feelings and negativity. The ad you are referring to for sure made the effect of spite. The campaign ad could also be applied to national politics. President Obama tried to portray John McCain as another want to be George Bush. This was very affective because many people saw that McCain’s policies were eerily similar to President Bush. Using spite can be a good way to get your way, but appealing to fear is a much better way to get your way.
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