Killer Campaigning » Political Campaign Advertising

Guns, Horses & Cowboy Hats: Today’s Featured Political Campaign Ad

killercampaigning — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:37:17 +0000

Hat tip to Political Scrapbook for highlighting this over-the-top political campaign ad commercial from Dale Peterson, who is running for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries in Alabama. This is the kind of election commercial that you will either absolutely love or absolutely hate depending upon your politics, but I guarantee it will make you chuckle regardless of whether you’re a Democrat or Republican:

You have to hand it to the guy for his unapologetic enthusiasm, even if you don’t agree with his positions. I can’t remember ever seeing a political candidate pull out a rifle in a campaign ad before. I doubt that would play well in northeast Ohio, but all politics is local.

What do you think: will this ad help or hurt Peterson in his race for Ag Commish? Do any Killer Campaigning readers have more insight into the political landscape in Alabama? Leave a comment and let us know if you do.

Killer Campaigning Article Featured on JohnChow.com

Buy Online Advertising for Political Campaign, Election Products

killercampaigning — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:29:13 +0000

If you sell political campaign and election products for candidates online, then it’s important to find the right websites to advertise your services in front of a relevant audience. Killer Campaigning is one of the most popular websites in the country for people who want information about running political campaigns and winning elections . . . and that means our visitors are exactly the kind of people you need to put your products in front of.

Visit the Killer Campaigning Advertising Page for more information about ad options and pricing for your products. Our website is visited by candidates for office, political consultants and campaign managers from across the United States and around the world. Our large and loyal readership is made up of Democrats, Republicans and Independents running in local, statewide and federal races in all fifty states.

In addition to banner advertisements, Killer Campaigning also offers paid reviews and recommendations for our thousands of daily readers, Twitter followers and Facebook Page fans. Our past advertisers have included political consulting firms, polling companies, election book and kit authors, politics websites, yard sign and banner companies, and printing companies that specialize in campaign fliers, postcards, doorcards, brochures and candidate literature.

Remember: every new Killer Campaigning advertiser will also receive a free featured welcome post that puts your product in the spotlight for our thousands of daily visitors, subscribers and fans. Contact Killer Campaigning today to learn more about our advertising options, and get your company or product in front of one of the biggest audiences of political campaign & election fans on the Internet!

Racist Political Campaign Ads: Candidates Showing Racism in Elections?

killercampaigning — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:14:25 +0000

Blogtown PDX has an interesting post today about a political campaign ad by Florida congressional candidate Dan Fanelli that many people are calling blatantly racist. Whether you agree with their assessment or not, you should hop over and take a look at the video.

What do you think: is the Fanelli political campaign commercial racist, or not? Have you ever seen election advertisements from candidates in local, state or federal races that you thought crossed the line into racism or bigotry, or do you think that the accusations are usually overplayed?

We don’t know about the dynamics of Fanelli’s congressional race, and have no idea whether this ad will help him or hurt him in his district. One thing is for sure: it’s certainly going to get him some extra attention, which is a good lesson for any candidate who plans on trying something controversial or risque in their political campaign ads.

Political Campaign Election Candidates with Funny Names

killercampaigning — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:46:11 +0000

Killer Campaigning has focused before on political campaign candidates running for office with long, funny, or downright strange and weird names. Whether you have an unusual first or last name, you might be worried about how it will affect your electability if you’re campaigning for votes in a local election.

There are plenty of politicians who have been elected with funny names, and nothing so trivial should keep you from running for office if you’re truly dedicated to serving your community. In fact, as we’ve mentioned here before, a unique name–even if it brings smiles to the voters’ faces–can make you more memorable if you run a great political campaign.

If you’re a political candidate with a long, funny or unusual name, then there’s someone who you should meet: Young Boozer, a candidate for State Treasurer in Alabama. In addition to an impressive resume, Boozer has an amusing name . . . and he doesn’t shy away from it.

His campaign motto of “Funny Name, Serious Leadership” is very memorable, and he even starts out his political campaign commercial by saying “yes, that’s my real name.”

I don’t know how Young Boozer will fare in his election efforts, but you have to admire the guy for jumping into the political arena with such a humorous name. If Boozer can make a respectable run for higher office with a name like his, than nothing is stopping you from doing the same.

Hat tip to A Tale Told by an Idiot for bringing our attention to Boozer’s ad.

Killer Campaigning Advertiser Welcome: pTracker Campaigns

killercampaigning — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:59:26 +0000

Killer Campaigning would like to welcome our newest on-site advertiser, pTracker Campaigns.

pTracker Campaigns offers an innovative and exciting new product for political candidates to create their own specialized campaign iPhone application. Their App Builder Service allows candidates to use modern technology to stay in contact with supporters, send alerts about upcoming events, solicit input and contributions . . . and much more.

Your personalized pTracker Campaign Application can be easily configured to use on the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod. After you’ve configured your app to your exact specifications, pTracker Campaigns will then build it and submit it to the App Store, so you can concentrate on your campaign.

Killer Campaigning is a big advocate of applying emerging technology to political campaign strategy, and we’re happy to have pTracker Campaigns on board as an advertiser. If you’re a political candidate, campaign manager or consultant, we hope you’ll check out their new Campaign App Building Service today!

Candidates Wearing Military Uniforms in Political Campaign Ads

killercampaigning — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:50:01 +0000

Idaho congressional candidate Vaughn Ward, who is a major in the Marine reserves, was recently told by the Marine Corps that he violated a Pentagon directive by wearing his military uniform in a political campaign Internet advertisement. In the ad, Vaughn is shown wearing camouflage and body armor with his rifle at his side.

This is an important lesson for political campaign candidates who are veterans or who are currently serving in the United States Army Reserves, National Guard, Coast Guard, Navy or Air Force Reserves.

While military law doesn’t explicitly forbid active military members from using a picture of themselves in uniform on political campaign ads, the Pentagon does require that the ads have “prominent and clearly displayed disclaimers that neither the military information nor photographs imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or their particular Military Department.”

Additionally, the directive also prohibits images of candidates “in uniform as the primary graphic representation” in campaign material.

Veterans who are no longer active members of the military don’t need to worry about including this disclaimer on their campaign materials if they include an old picture of themselves in uniform. You shouldn’t, however, try to design commercials, fliers, brochures or advertisements in a way that is intended to trick voters into thinking that you’re still an active member of the United States military.

Political candidates running in local elections have every right to be proud of their military service and mention it in their campaign literature and advertising. Still, make sure that you take care to follow the directives of the Pentagon if you’re still an active member of the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines . . . and don’t deceive anyone into thinking you’re still active if you aren’t.

Doctored, Staged & Photoshopped Political Campaign Photos, Election Pictures

Doctored, Staged & Photoshopped Political Campaign Photos, Election Pictures

killercampaigning — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:22:50 +0000

News out of Britain today that the Welsh Liberal Democrats–who are one political party running in a hotly-contested national election–are facing criticism for staging a fake political campaign ad that features someone dressed up as a police officer. The charge is that the person in the photo is not actually a police officer, but rather someone pretending to be one. While this doesn’t appear to be anything illegal or against election laws, it’s causing some raised eyebrows in England.

This brings up a good point for political candidates running in local elections here in the United States: be careful how you stage photographs, doctor images or Photoshop pictures used in your campaign literature and advertising. While it’s fine to use Photoshop or another image manipulation program to smooth out wrinkles, add a tan or whiten teeth, you’re treading on thin ice if you start removing individuals from a picture entirely or inserting someone who wasn’t in the photo to begin with.

And, of course, never dress someone up as a police officer, firefighter, doctor or military service member and include them in your political campaign advertising, commercials or fliers. While it might not be technically against election law in some states, trying to fool the voters into thinking you’re being endorsed by a group through these kind of tactics is deceptive.

Additionally, you run the risk of a huge backlash if a real group of safety service members notice that you dressed up an actor as one of their own in your advertising and report it to the public and media. If you don’t have a real man or woman in uniform to use in your political campaign ads, then don’t fake it.

Buy Online Advertising for Political Campaign, Election Products

Google AdWords Advertising for Political Campaigns & Candidates

killercampaigning — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:45:16 +0000

While it’s not the best thing to spend your political campaign money on if you have a limited budget or are running in a very small race, Google AdWords can be a good advertising option if you’re a candidate in a medium-sized or large election. I’ll write a more in-depth post about how to optimize Google AdWords ads for political campaigns later, but right now I’m going to give you a brief, high-level look at exactly what the program is and how it works.

The AdWords program is how Google makes a large part of the billions of dollars it rakes in every year. If you’ve ever used the Internet, then you’ve seen Google AdWords ads online . . . although you might not have realized it.

When you do a Google search, you’ll often see results in the sidebar under the heading “sponsored links” . . . those are AdWords ads. You have probably also seen AdWords ads on blogs and websites, where they appear under the heading “ads by Google.”

Any person or organization can purchase AdWords ads, and they can be very effective because you can specify exactly what states, cities and zip codes you would like your ads to appear in on the Internet. Additionally, you can set your ads so they only show up when someone does a search for a specific set of keywords.

Here’s an example: let’s say that you’re running for County Commissioner in Lorain County, Ohio. When you create your first AdWords ad, you can specify that you only want people to see the ad when they do a Google search at computers in the zip codes of specific cities in Lorain County.

Additonally, you can use Google’s free AdWords Keyword Tool to tell you what kind of keyword phrases people might search for that have to do with political campaign candidates, and specify that you want your ad to show up when those specific searches are performed in Lorain County.

In the AdWords program, you place “bids” on how much you’re willing to pay for each time someone clicks on your ad for a given keyword phrase search. For example, Google AdWords might indicate that the average bid for ads that show up for a search of “Lorain County Commissioner” is fifty cents per click. You could bid a similar amount, or you could bid a bit higher in hopes that your ad will show up higher in the queue for that keyword.

It probably sounds a bit confusing, but you’ll get the hang of it very quickly if you open your own AdWords account and start bidding on keywords. You need to have a political campaign website to direct your AdWords traffic to, of course–and it’s best to send your AdWords traffice to a pre-designed landing page that is optimized to get people to donate to your campaign, sign up for your newsletter, or some other sort of conversion metric.

In addition to giving you the ability to set your maximum bids for how much you want to pay per click on your ads, Google AdWords also lets you set a maximum daily budget, too.

If you don’t want to spend more than five dollars a day on AdWords traffic to your site, then you can specify this in the program and your ads will automatically stop showing when you reach that threshold.

Copyrighted Images & Products in Political Campaign Advertising

killercampaigning — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:25:31 +0000

The company that manufactures the food product Marmite is suing the British National Party . . . because the political group used a picture of a jar of Marmite in some of their campaign advertisements without permission from the company. According to The IP Factor:

“For readers who were deprived of a British or South African childhood, Marmite is a sandwich spread made from yeast extract, which is very healthy, and an excellent source of Vitamin B12. It is, however, an aquired taste, and unless one was introduced to it as a child, the smell would probably put one off tasting the stuff. “

This, of course, brings up an important point for anyone who is running in a local election: you cannot use copyrighted or trademarked products and images in your political campaign advertising, on your campaign website, or on any campaigning materials.

Even if a specific company has donated to your campaign and agrees with your platform, there are few companies that want to have their name associated with political candidates or parties . . . it’s just too polarizing. I don’t know of many companies who can afford to tick off half of the populace by letting their product images be used by a political candidate.

And don’t be so sure that companies won’t notice that you’re using their products in advertisements just because you are running in a small local election, either. In today’s Internet age, images and news travels fast.

Local Election Date: What Day Do We Vote, Anyway?

killercampaigning — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:26:02 +0000

When you’re a candidate in a local political campaign, the election date is seared in your mind; it represents the culmination of months of tireless work, the day when voters will finally be able to go to the polls and cast their ballots for or against your candidacy.

When you’re that invested in election day of a particular year, it’s often hard to believe that anyone in your community might not know what date they are supposed to vote.

Well, believe it: most people you meet on the political campaign trail in a local election won’t be able to tell you when election day is. It might be the most important day of the year to you, but the average voter doesn’t have the inclination to keep track of the primary election date or the general election date.

And yes, the dates do change every year. While general election day is always on a Tuesday in November, it’s not always on the same date of the month. Here’s the rule: the general election is always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

That’s not an easy system for the average person to remember, even if they are proud of exercising their civic duty to vote in a local election. But as a candidate for political office, it’s up to you to make sure that your target voters get reminded as many times as possible when they need to get to the polls and vote.

Here’s a rule I like to follow with all of my political campaign literature, advertising and press releases: if there’s any room at all to do so, always boldly remind your readers when election day is.

If you’re doing your job as a candidate and getting your political campaign materials in the hands of people who are likely to vote for you, then your voters will (hopefully) be slightly better educated about when they should go to the polls.

Although it might start to seem too repetitive to you, make sure that you consistently remind your voters when the election date is. Even if it only gets a few more of your voters to the polls, that could mean the difference between victory and defeat on election day.