The Persuasive Power of Campaign Advertising

"For anyone interested in the role of ads in campaigns, this is a very valuable book. Summing Up: Recommended." Choice "Ridout and Franz have done scholars of political communication, behavior, and campaigns a great service in writing this book." Political Communication, January 2012 "The Persuasive Power of Campaign Advertising contributes significant insights into campaign advertising for students of political science, journalists, and anyone involved or interested in political campaigns. As a major source of information on candidates, television advertising has a strong effect on American democracy, and this work gives a basis for understanding how it works." Washington State Magazine, Summer 2012 "Travis N. Ridout, professor at American University, and Michael Franz, associate professor at Bowdoin College, both with a background in political science, make a welcome attempt to evaluate the impact of campaign advertising on election results through quantitative methods. Given the lack of research in this area, Ridout and Franz's contribution is very valuable. The book has eight chapters covering such topics as the context of campaigns; negativity and emotional appeals in ads; the effect of receivers' (i.e., prospective voters') characteristics and ad coverage in news media; and previous research and suggestions for future research." Jhistory, October 2012 "[T]he book succeeds in establishing the ubiquity of ad impact... The authors have done a masterful job in laying out issues." Party Politicsd, November 2012