Welcome to Stand By Your Ad!
Hello! Thank you for checking out Stand By Your Ad; a project aiming to centralize political advertisements in a convenient, nonpartisan manner! The goal for this project is to help consumers of political advertisements find, filter, and analyze political advertisements of the 2020 Presidential campaign and beyond.
I was inspired to begin this project from my use of the now defunct(?) “Living Room Candidate” website. I am grateful for the service that LRC provided, and wish it were still active today, that said, I see an opportunity to continue their good work. There is a need for organization and centralization of the literally hundreds of advertisements that have been, and will be pushed out by the various campaigns over the next 12 months and beyond. It is the goal of Stand By Your Ad to be that resource.
Why This Site Exists:
Advertising is an incredibly powerful tool to relay a politician’s message to the masses. Political campaigns have entire divisions of their organizations dedicated to crafting and delivering the perfect ad. The perfect advertisement that will go viral, make headlines, and attach to the back of your mind. The one that will replay just before you make your final decision at the polls.
Political Advertisements are subtle and cunning; they employ a wide variety of psychological techniques to impact the viewer and influence the way we think and feel about candidates and issues. My goal is to provide helpful resources to educate about the tactics and strategies behind advertisements and to help understand why certain advertisements are so impactful, while others are not.
Stand By Your Ad will be the one-stop-shop for political campaign advertisements. We will collect, categorize and sort every officially released advertisement from major candidates so that users from all over America and around the world can find, sort, analyze and educate themselves on candidates, issues and more.
Advertisements have a rich history in American politics, dating as far back as politics itself in this country, candidates have attempted to sway the masses with the mediums of their times; from cartoons to leaflets, to buttons, bumper stickers and beyond, political advertising has been a constant from the beginning. The goal of Stand By Your Ad is to help users not only parse through the multitude of political advertisements of our current day, but also to highlight and celebrate some of the greatest political advertisements in American history.
Education:
There is great opportunity to help educate students about politics, government, civics and discourse through the use of advertisements. Scholarship over political advertisement has the potential to teach students in a cross-curricular method; from media literacy, language, psychology, art, persuasion, science, math, technology and more, the study of campaign ads is ripe with educational potential.
A major pillar of Stand By Your Ad is to support both students and teachers alike in the pursuit of this study. Stand By Your Ad will have a teacher section full of lesson plans, projects and activities all surrounding political advertisements. Outreach will be a main tool used for Stand By Your Ad. This includes reaching out to professionals in the field to create curated playlists of ads around particular themes or ideas. Stand By Your Ad will also reach out to fellow teachers for ideas on implementing political advertisements into their curriculum.
About Me:
I am a high school government teacher who is passionate about politics and American government. My “nerdiness” for government knows no limits! I have spent the last number of summers traveling the nation participating in summer seminars and institutes offered by such groups as C-SPAN, The United States Supreme Court, the National Constitution Center, and more. I attend every major political rally that comes within an hour of my home town, regardless of political affiliation. My students know me in part for my obsession with politics and how much I “geek out” over the spectacle of American political life. One major reason I began Stand By Your Ad is simply because I enjoy politics as a hobby, and I find advertising to be equally as intriguing.
Living in a very politically contentious swing state, we are pummeled with advertisements on just about every medium conceivable. From television to YouTube advertisements, candidates are spending enormous amounts of money to get their messages in front of our eyes and into our ears. The sheer multitude of ads can be overwhelming, and for some, it is a relief when campaigns are complete; thankful for the cease-fire in the advertisement war. I, on the other hand love campaign ads, and hope to share that through this project.
Stand By Your Ad is an ongoing project. I am excited to begin this journey and hopefully create a resource that is helpful and enjoyable. If you have feedback, questions, or want to assist in this project, please use the Contact link, and reach out!
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