played a major role in influencing public opinion and helping to support the popularity of many elected officials. Once the conflict diminished, however, television turned toward exposing some of the more "shady" activities of elected officials in Washington, the government paid trips of Presidential Chief of Staff John Sununu for one (Duffy, 1991, pp. 20-2).
In election campaigns, as well as in other product specific advertising activities, signature marketing techniques provide a greater public awareness of the product and the message. This is just as true for elections as it is in newspaper advertising, although studies show that the addition of color and movement in advertising provides a greater sense of empathy with the product, or in this case, the person running for office (For more on signature marketing, see Randall Rothenberg, "Black-and-White Ads with a Splash of Color," The New York Times [15 May 1990]: p. c17).
Further, advertising research has found that celebrity endorsements in advertising, particularly those using a two sided framework, increase a viewer's perception of advertiser credibility by including a discussion of a limitation of the product (the candidate). Results show that when compared to a traditional one sided celebrity endorsement, the two sided communication elicited significantly higher advertising credibility and effectiveness ratings, higher evaluation of the sponsor in terms of perception, and a greater intention of believing in the product (Kamins, 1989, pp. 4-10). This can be seen as one of the ways television advertising helps solidify voter behavior when using celebrities to back a candidate for office.
Political scientists and communications specialists have been speculating on the role of television in election behavior for several decades. In the 1960s, several studies reported that 22 percent of all voters had yet to vote when the networks began their election day coverage, ...