Source: Paul is not working for you Youtube
On September 22 David Brill, the Democratic Congress candidate for the red state Arizona, launched a social media campaign that Buzzfeed called one “of the most scathing political advertisements the internet has ever seen”.
Starting like many American political ads, various people talk about the failing policies of current Republican Congressman Paul Gosar and emphasize that “Paul Gosar is not working for you”.
The Catch? Well, at the end of the ad it turns out the six people featured in the ads are actually Paul Gosar’s—siblings.
The ad ends with all siblings wholeheartedly supporting the other candidate David Brill for Congress. After this ad premiered, the Internet was abuzz and major news outlets, like CNN to Fox News, reported on this “family feud” unfolding under the publics’ eye.
In later interviews, the siblings revealed they decided to take a united stand against their brother’s radical right-wing policies after a PR staffer of Brill’s team had approached them.
A publicity stunt or a publicity failure?
It is clear Paul Gosar’s Republican opponent achieved a publicity stunt by incorporating the Gosar siblings in his campaign. In fact, while many of his previous campaign videos only reached max 300 views, this campaign ad climbed to 2 million views on YouTube. Research has shown that negative advertising, particularly in the political sphere, has a mobilizing effect on voters, yet remains inconclusive in which direction this mobility really goes (Martin, 2004).
While the increased exposure is unquestionable, Valentini (2015) reminds us social media usage should not be embraced uncritically and proposes valuable insights how it can also backfire; when PR practitioners create a social media campaign for the sake of getting attention even if it is controversial, it can also harm the organization when audiences deem the message offensive.
Brill’s team undoubtedly wanted to cause a stir by taking a family feud into the public eye, but their main goal was to undermine Gosar’s policies and highlight Brill’s plans for the state. They followed the script by combining PR’s two main traditions:
1. The rhetorical tradition by creating viable content on Brill’s policies and fostering trust in him as a political leader
2. The relational tradition by promoting the content on social media to start conversations among supporters and critics
(Macnamara & Zerfas, 2012; Valentini, 2015).
Yet conversations on social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube show that the public has been mainly drawn towards the Gosar family controversy rather than Dr. Brill’s bid for Congress. So did the PR practitioners approach backfire and lead the dialogue away from Brill candidature and towards Gosar and his family?
While political campaigns increasingly use social media for its “democratizing” nature, PR practitioners also recognize the danger of losing control of the political message and the candidates’ image once the platforms are activated (Macnamara & Zerfas, 2012).
It seems we have to wait
and find out.
If David Brill can
gain the incumbent seat that Paul Gosar has held since 2013, we can assume his
controversial campaign stirred the conversation in the intended direction. Yet
if he fails we have to wonder whether Brill’s team went too far and lost hold
of the social media jungle.
About the Author
Nathalie Enderle is a master student of communication science at the University of Amsterdam. Currently enrolled in the Public Relations elective she aims to embed creative writing into an academic environment through blog posts for PR professionals.
Academic Sources
Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4), 287–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2012.711402
Martin, P. S. (2004), Inside the Black Box of Negative Campaign Effects: Three Reasons Why Negative Campaigns Mobilize. Political Psychology, 25: 545-562. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2004.00386.x
Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4), 287–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2012.711402
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten