What Does It Take to Change a Voter's Mind?
On Monday November 3, the night before the coming election, your team will present a campaign television commercial on a specific California proposition to the registered voters of the Metro community. The purpose of your ad is to persuade your audience on how to vote in the California election on the following day.
Your Task
Each team of four students will create the following products:
- a research brief on the issue of your proposal
- focus group research, based on interviews you conduct with the target voters of your campaign
- a campaign commercial (30 seconds or less) on one of the ballot initiatives in the upcoming election
Your Success
Your success depends on:
- the quality of the research on your team’s proposition
- your understanding of the art and science of voter persuasion
- your skill in video production and editing
- your ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, deadline-demanding election schedule
- the critical thinking and communication skills you develop in forming a sustained political argument
Campaign Ads 2008
The Upper Division students of Metro are proud to present their political ads for the California propositions of November 2008. These videos are the product of months of researching the ballot, interviewing voters, studying the media, thinking critically about the issues, and spending hours in video production.
We are thrilled that ABC-7 News came to Metro to film a story about our project. See the ABC-7 News story.
All of the ads are posted here.
Congratulations to the students of Metro for their wildly successful exhibition night.
Reference Documents
- The Propositions
- Project Schedule
- Campaign Ad Production Teams
- Useful Links
- Downloads
- Invitation to Voter Information Night
- Examples from Campaign Ad Project 2006
- Campaign Ads 2008
Benchmarks
- Ballot Review : due 9/19
- Team Platform : due 9/26
- Focus Group Research : due 9/29
- Commercial Treatment Proposal : due 10/3
- Commerical Storyboard and Script : due 10/8
- First Draft of Campaign Commercial : due 10/22
- Program Notes : due 10/22
- Final Draft of Campaign Commercial : due 10/29
- White Paper : due 12/12
Example of Student Work from 2008
No on Prop 6: Law Enforcement Funding
Produced by Thalia de Leon, Ish Escobedo, Scott Gowin, Jahlil Mitchell, Jonathan Sarceno
The target voters for our campaign ad are young people between the ages of 18 and 30. These people are swing voters because they are young and newer voters and tend to be less informed. They also tend to get in trouble with the police more than other age groups. The rhetorical device we are going to use is logos because in our commercial we tell voters that if this prop passes more money is given to police, but they are not given any guidelines as to how to use the new funds. We believe our commercial is going to motivate our target voters to vote because it shows how the police are benefiting from this prop, yet nothing will change. Also, this commercial will have a little humor so these voters will pay close attention to the commercial and learn what prop 6 is really about.