Religion & Chaos | Political Ad Critique pt. 3
Get ready for round three! As I’ve mentioned previously, I am politically a Centrist. I feel the need to say this again because of what I’m about to say in this article.
“Evangelicals For Trump are ready to help re-elect President Donald J. Trump.”
OK, the ad starts by calling attention to a certain group of supporters, “Evangelicals For Trump.” This language has been used before, “REAL Americans,” “true Patriots.” So if you belong to this group of people, the ad is letting you know you’re not alone, every other person like you is already ready to vote for President Trump, so what’re you waiting for? Also, using his full name is good for SEO and is a very formal/respectful way of addressing a person, like evangelicals would do in churches.
“Join the movement today and ensure religious freedoms are kept as a top priority!”
I like how the ad is simply two sentences. 1. I’m talking to you! 2. here’s the action you should take! Continuing from the first sentence, if you fit into that group, here is the call-to-action that those people have already done — join[ed] the movement. And the wording is clever in that it doesn’t stop after “ensure religious freedoms are kept.” Adding “as a top priority” makes the reader think that religious freedoms are always top of mind, but now YOU can help keep it there!
Copy: 6/10, simple and to the point… but wait, the image…
The imagery of this advertisement is tremendously wrong on so many levels, even morally. Up until now the ad was talking to a religious group of people, about protecting religious freedoms, and keeping them a top priority. So, one can assume an image of a church or the President holding a bible, or praying would be appropriate. On the contrary, the image gets rid of any dealings of religion and switches to a message of Public Safety vs Chaos & Violence. Public Safety is represented by President Trump surrounded by men and women of our armed forces, seemingly being read/given a plack. That makes sense, being surrounded by people that protect our country. The Chaos & Violence image, however…
The next level of wrong this image gets to should leave many of us, in the marketing world, speechless.
I understand fact checking, and checking for credible sources when I do research online but this, this causes division and animosity between President Trump supporters and opponents. Supports can easily believe this is from the USA, because what’s happening in this image is currently happening now. But when the other side tries to say it’s a stolen image from another country, 6 years ago, that won’t sway supporters opinions. Even though a lie was fed to us right in front of our faces, it still gets eaten up.
Imagery: -10/10, “Fake News”