Shaping the Candidates
By JENNIFER SANDS '95
nd they told me the block plan ends at graduation.
If three and a half weeks at Colorado College equal a semester, 30 seconds in a political campaign equal a lifetime. Putting together a 30 second spot takes months of preparation. In some cases those seconds are created, critiqued and recreated over several weeks. In other cases, they are created in mere hours with no chance for revision.
Regardless of the creation time, they must be of highest creative quality. Candidates rely on television and radio advertising to communicate their name as well as their ideas and goals to the voters.
When I worked on political campaigns in high school and college, I had little understanding of the advertising side of campaigns. The ads always magically appeared and filled up broadcast time. Working for Colorado College Professor Mike Bird's campaign for Governor in 1994 brought me closer to the process and introduced me to the consultants who would later offer me my current job.
The consultant side of a campaign is a completely different world. We are not on the ground with the candidates ( or even in the same state. Though we help make decisions, we don't know the volunteers who deliver yard signs, circulate flyers or stuff envelopes.
Through research and past experience we do know the state's political landscape, as well as the issues and policies that are important to voters. We know what our candidate thinks and has done regarding every issue and non-issue one can imagine. We may only meet her or him a handful of times ( usually on filming days ( but we are highly involved in the candidate's daily life throughout the election cycle.
Two years after my brief meeting with consultants at the Mike Bird for Governor film shoot, I found myself pouring over scrapbooks bursting with yellowed newspaper clippings, old photos, letters and other mementoes that at one time seemed important enough to save between plastic sheets. Carefully I removed pictures from different pages of his album and mixed them with film clips sorted in a computer. I slowly pieced together the life of a person whose letters to mom from summer camp I knew by heart, but whom I had never met in person.
His story ( 50 years of life and 25 years of public service ( must be told in 30 seconds with enough visual and aural excitement to catch the attention of a population that works harder and has more distractions than ever.
Later, with just weeks until the primary election, the opponent attacked. Into the edit suite we went, armed with an intimate knowledge of the candidate's records and those of his opponent, piles of newspaper articles and countless pieces of film. It seems as though opponents only attack when you're making dinner plans. And if the opponent attacks, you must respond. To be effective, these response ads must be at television stations within 12 hours of the attack. Multiply this scenario by 12 candidates and our staff of seven, factor in the time spent assisting campaigns with press releases, position papers, speeches and debates and you get months full of 20- hour work days. This is the real life block plan.
The reward for lost sleep comes when voters respond to the message. But after months of work compacting complicated messages about important public policies into less time than most people wait at a red light, a jump in the polls is like an A+ on a quiz when all that matters is the final. Poll numbers show us that the ads covey their message, but we know we need to keep working.
Politicians do not get into office alone. They are backed by dedicated staffs and tireless volunteers. Consultants also experience the emotional highs and lows of a campaign. Political purists, however, see us as imposters ( people highly skilled in manipulation, people who don't care about public policies and their implications. We are, in their eyes, the underbelly of the political snake.
A man I sat next to on a recent flight once sternly lectured me from New York to Atlanta about the evils of political advertising. "You people are destroying America," he said, complaining that we give the public no more than a few TV sound bites about candidates and important issues.
As a student of politics and public policy I understand the stranger's frustration, but I disagree with his conclusion about my occupation. Though I, too, wish that the public would spend more time listening to speeches and debates and paying attention to the actions of their elected officials, I am proud to do my part in communicating the policy agendas of candidates to their voters.
I believe citizens should know who represents them (or who wants to represent them), as well as the policies they endorse and the implications of those policies. True, 30 seconds is not enough time to cover every facet of an issue or candidate. And true, 30 seconds can sometimes confuse voters. But confusion is not the intention.
If I do my job well, the message is not confusing and the public benefits by learning of policies that a hard working office holder puts forth.
Jennifer Sands '95 has a bachelor's degree in political economy and a master's degree in public policy. She makes political advertisements and lives in Alexandria, Va.