With the landscape of American politics becoming extremely
polarized, the scope and type of radio commercials that are
produced will be challenged to offer rhetoric and copy that
touches the heart and not deflect off the shield that surrounds
the soul of most voters. The conditioning of the mind has been
evolving since the first political radio commercials.
Scott Radio (www.scottradio.com) a radio political voice and
script writing organization conducted a survey of over five
hundred radio listeners in a quest to understand the mindset or
comfort zone of the average radio listener. Some of the
discoveries were as follows: The advent of Ipods?, Internet
radio and satellite radio are just starting to take hold. The
listener still enjoys local radio programming during a typical
day, but the amount of time spent listening to local or
traditional radio stations decreased by twenty percent during
the past two years. Second, the tolerance level for commercials
is eroding. Fifty percent of those surveyed stated that they
have a quick "trigger" to avoid commercials. Finally, the survey
revealed that for political radio advertising specifically, the
over saturation by candidates during the campaign is reason
enough to avoid commercial radio.
We are living in exciting and changing times. The political
radio commercial is in danger of extinction unless clear and
major changes are made. The landscape demands thoughtful,
heartfelt and creative advertisements that mirror the
non-political radio commercials. With the amount of money
required to reach total name recognition in a political
campaign, radio will be used less for issue dissemination and
more for image building.
About the author:
Scott Perreault is a radio and narration voice veteran with over
twenty years of broadcasting and voice work experience. From the
writing, production and development of radio campaigns to the
recording of a two-hour audio book, Scott has experienced many
facets of the voice business. Scott resides in both California
and Minnesota.
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