NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
The More Things Change... By Mary Lau, RAN CEO
I
N DOING AN IN-HOUSE REVIEW OF THE 2022 ELECTION, SEVERAL MEMBERS AS WELL as staff were lamenting how nasty politics has gotten. It’s funny and, while I can understand that perspective, from my viewpoint, it’s always been nasty. At least in my lifetime in politics. Political advertising is fascinating – it really has truly little to do with the education of the public, which is really what the public wants. Voters would like to see compare and contrast ads that are based in fact, but most ads are designed to confuse using dirty tricks while appealing to the emotions of the voter. A lot of that science includes music, color, scary or positive imaging. It is a science. The first thing you do is determine a story to tell that has to be good for your candidate and bad for the other candidate. You determine the theme and stick to it. Campaign advertising is so sophisticated, those of you who thought you would never use high school algebra should not enter this field. The science
campaign of Bush (HW) versus Dukakis. At that time, the Bush campaign was floundering and looking for a way to overcome Dukakis. They chose the issue of crime, soft on crime to be specific. Willie Horton was serving a life sentence in prison and failed to return following a weekend furlough in 1986. The following spring he kidnapped a young couple, raping the woman and assaulting the man, before he was Continued on page 2
Mary Lau and interactive modeling of political advertising is based on it - both fascinating and scary. Thinking as far back in memory as the Goldwater campaign against Lyndon B Johnson, Goldwater was accused of being extreme, dangerous, and not mentally fit to serve as the President of the United States. The famous “Daisy” ad never really mentioned Goldwater, but it did have the requisite atomic bomb being set off. LBJ, of course, won that race by a landslide. In the “Willie Horton” ad that was used in the
INSIDE What Impact Does a Regulation Have on Patients Needing Medication?.....................3 The Man Behind the Tiger...........................4 Nevada Voters Choose Democracy..........5 2023 Nevada Legislatifve Makeup....5, 6 Nevada Consumers to Spend $6.5 Billion This Holiday Season..... 11