Advertising Strategies

 According to Dr. Lynda Lee Kaid, former professor of telecommunications and journalism at the University of Florida, political advertising has become the dominant form of communication between the candidates and voters in the United States since the 1950s, when political advertising first appeared in campaigns. As such, political candidates must implement various strategies in creating their ads in order to effectively reach their (potential) voters.

In the following campaign ad for Andrew Cuomo's 2014 New York gubernatorial campaign, Cuomo features his three daughters and his girlfriend Sandra Lee.  The ad, titled "Equality" promotes his women's equality agenda. Surrounded by the women of his family, Cuomo pushes voters to "pass a women’s equality act to treat women fairly, for my family and for yours." The ad clearly has several gender strategies at play within it; Cuomo employs feminine strategies to appeal to female voters.  Surrounding himself by the women of his family and playing to women's issues not only shows that he is a "family man," but also emphasizes his perceived compassion and sensitivity (which are feminine characteristics) within the ad.  

The following two ads, titled "Picente" and "Mahoney" respectively, feature New York Republicans that support Gov. Cuomo, implementing candidate-positive campaign strategies, and emphasizing the value of bipartisanship. Overall, many of Cuomo's ads during his 2014 New York gubernatorial campaign were largely candidate-positive. I feel this was most likely due to two reasons: 1. Because he was running as an incumbent, it would be easier to present a candidate-positive image, and 2. Many believed that the election would go to Cuomo, without any competition. Cuomo and his campaign team probably believed that there was not a need to employ a large amount of attack ads against his opponents.