Adaptation is a well known principle of psychology, and yet political strategists have always ignored it. Simply put, sensory adaptation is why you don't notice your underpants: your mind has adapted to their presence. It's a way taking certain constants for granted, and focusing instead on the sensations that are actually changing. My hunch is that negative ads failed this year because there were simply too many of them. Our TV's were saturated with the same cliched allegations, tired montages, and ominous warnings, and so we just tuned it all out. The nasty ads became as noticeable as our underwear. From the NY Times:
Negative advertisements that had proved so successful in the past fell short in many districts."You could say the guy is going to raise taxes, increase spending, he hasn't done a particularly good job," said Russ Schriefer, a Republican strategist whose campaigns included that of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland, who was defeated Tuesday. "They would just say, uh huh, we know that but this year I'm going to vote Democrat.'"
Mr. Mehlman said that was a lesson of this campaign. "Every election cycle, advertising works a little less well than it did the previous cycle," he said.
Comments (5)
Posted by: Mustafa Mond, FCD | November 9, 2006 10:31 AM