The presidential election of 2012 may not be remembered for
who won or lost, or the issues, or the storm that wrecked the east coast: There’s
a good chance it will be remembered by how much it cost.
By some
estimates, over $6 billion (with a ‘B’) has been spent collectively on the
various election races nationwide, with something close to a billion being
spent on the presidential election alone. With at least 120 million Americans
expected to go to the ballot, that’s a staggering $50 per vote. This compares
with under $20 per vote in 2000.
This is unquestionably great news if you’re a TV station
owner, especially if you’re Ohioan, but of dubious merit for just about
everyone else and for democracy at large. But let’s ignore the Big Question about
the wisdom of mixing all that money in a democratic election process. I have a
more fundamental question: Is this money well spent? Said another way, can you
buy an election?
There’s no question that advertising is persuasive to some
degree, but can it influence voting? Not so much. Stephen
Dunbar at Freaknomics finds that
campaigns managers and insiders from all political parties don’t see a nice
linear relationship between spending and outcome, but they recognize it
contributes. While researchers acknowledge that the biggest spender is also most often the
winner, when all other factors are taken into account, the spending isn’t the root
cause of success. To cite recent examples, Meg Whitman in California or McMahon in Connecticut each spent a considerable part of their private fortunes on loosing campaigns. So, the good news is you apparently can’t buy an election.
But wait. There has to be a reason all this money is
sloshing around in politics – why are we all subjected to so many crappy TV ads
unless they do something?
Advertising does a couple of things very well. First, and
most obviously, advertising raises awareness. In this regard, political candidates are no different
to dog food or Viagra, at least from an advertising perspective (there may be
other similarities which I won’t pursue). This is why so many ‘third party’
candidates rail against the political system – they aren’t able to compete for
awareness is a noisy, cluttered political environment. (Indeed, many Americans
are surprised and confused to find that there’s actually four candidates on the
ballot for president this year. Most voters have never heard of two of them).
The second effect of advertising is to set the agenda. The
famous adage about the news business – news
organizations can’t tell us what to think, but they can tell us what to think
about – is also true of advertising. This election cycle, the Democrats did a
masterful job of framing the political debate, so that the focus became less
about the economy and more about social, environmental and health issues. This didn't directly persuade voters to vote for any specific candidate, but it did provide evaluation criteria that favors one over the other.
Advertising can have others effects, especially for so-called ‘low involvement’ buying decisions (think breakfast cereal or washing detergent), but for most situations it’s influence is weak, indirect and fleeting.
As goes political advertising, so goes advertising
everywhere. Those we
wish to influence in business may not be heavily swayed by our own advertising and
self-promotion. We can make them aware of our company, we can raise issues we
think are significant and warrant attention – but we will need to rely on other
tools to really influence decision making.