Those of you who follow US politics – and who doesn’t right now? – probably know there’s a little election coming up in Ohio on March 4. Along with some local issues, the fate of the democratic presidential nominee might be resting in our hands. (How is it Ohio always ends up being so important?) As you can expect, Ohio is now getting a lot of attention.
A big part of this attention is advertising: mailings, TV ads, radio ads, yard signs, people holding up signs on street corners, and the occasional passing sign in a car window. Everyone wants to get out the message that their candidate is the best. And while I understand the excitement, I have to admit something: I’m sick of it.
Every weekday morning I drive Cordy to preschool. And each morning I like to listen to my favorite radio station, which happens to be a local pop rock station. (Sorry, Aaron’s the one who listens to NPR all day. I can only take so much news.) The morning has a mix of music and DJ talk, which I like because they rarely talk about the same thing two days in a row.
In the past two weeks, radio ads for the candidates began appearing during commercial breaks. But not just here and there – oh, no. I now fully understand the term “blanketing” when it comes to advertising, because I feel like I’m being smothered by one. The same Obama “I endorse this message” ad has been playing during every. single. damn. commercial break.
If you consider that in the course of my drive to and from preschool I hear about four commercial breaks – so four times a day minimum IF I don’t leave the house again – then you’d know I can practically quote the ad now. I hear a Clinton ad now and then, but not with the same frequency of the Obama ads.
I know candidates want to reach out to the voters and get their message across. But right now the only message I’m being sent is: I have an annoying ad that will be played every 15-20 minutes to hammer my name in your head. It’s overkill, and although I like Obama, it’s doing nothing to inspire me to vote for him.
In situations where I like two candidates equally, I’ve been known to vote against the one who annoys me with too many ads, or advertising that is too negative. Right now, I’m still on the fence about Clinton and Obama, but I admit this aggressive ad campaign is strongly affecting me. Maybe try for every other commercial break? Spice it up a little with some shorter ads that don’t bore me?
So while I encourage everyone out there to do your research on each candidate, pick the one you think will do the best job and go vote on March 4, I also can’t wait until the 5th when all of the campaign commercials will magically vanish into the ether. Then we’ll go back to being unimportant until the national campaign kicks off after the Republican and Democratic conventions. At that time I will be required to pull out my iPod and refuse to listen to the radio until mid-November.
Hey there – I’m delurking myself! I live in New Hampshire and we would get daily mailings from the candidates for the approximately 90 days leading up to the primaries. It was a relief when it was over.
I rarely have any tv channel other than a kid station on, only play cds in the car, and watch any grown-up shows on DVR so I miss the commercials! So, I’m pretty unannoyed, right now…
🙂
FYI, it may be my own computer and not your site, but yesterday, I could only get your header and side bars to load, but the posts wouldn’t pull up. Odd, cuz everyone else’s blogs were fine…
We are having the Republican national convention here in Minnesota and if your anywhere within 100 miles of the Twin Cities, or like me, stuck smack dab in the, you have heard of nothing else.
Cracks me up that they are having it here considering MN is a generally Dem state.
The Ipod idea sounds best, although I wonder what the candidates would do if they realized how many people did the “annoyed me least” vote.
Good luck, and I’m hoping the 5th comes around fast.
Oops…
*stuck smack dab in the MIDDLE*
Not enough coffee yet it seems
Ours is over now, and I am so glad. I generally consider myself politically aware but I am already sick of this campaign. Actually I was sick of it last year – which wasn’t even the election year!
There were surprisingly few ads here on Super Tuesday. That said, I don’t think Obama even needs to blanket Ohio with ads. He has the nomination in the bag. That isn’t a political opinion by me – I just think that statistically Hillary is done.
I haven’t decided who I want to vote for (I did not vote in the primaries) but looks like now I won’t have a choice.
I am so sick of this race right now, I can’t even stomach the idea of it going on and on and on until November. Plus, it’s hard to feel like it even matters…McCain is the “presumptive” nominee for Republicans, everywhere you turn the press reminds you how it’s all but impossible for Hillary to beat Obama. Part of me just wants this OVER! I also resent that it’s gotten to the point you can’t even answer the phone anymore without talking to my good friend (not) Ken Blackwell, or John McCain, or someone for Hillary or Barack or etc., etc., etc. Uncle already!
Hi. I stumbled upon your blog one day by pure accident, and have been a reader ever since.So, I decided to “delurk” myself, just to tell you how I feel about the election. I just hope that whoever wins will help people become more aware of the Autism epidemic. My son was recently DX in February of 2007. He has been nonverbal since 18 months (April of 2005). Very upsetting. But that is how I feel as far as this election goes. Kinda drawn between the Clinton and Obama ordeal. Mainly Clinton since she is more in favor of education too.
De-lurking to say I have also been known to keep tabs on how much I am assaulted by phone, mail, tv, radio ads for candidates and vote against the person that sends out the most- especially stuff in my mail box- what a waste of paper!
I’m sick of the phone calls. If you have to call and bother me at home, because you think I didn’t hear about you through one of the various other ways you campaign, you’re not getting my vote.
That’s funny because we just got back from a week out of town and had three direct mailings from Clinton in our mail. I wanted to send them back and say, “thanks for wasting a lot of money by sending us THREE.”