The political radio commercial is in danger of extinction unless clear and major changes are made.
With the landscape of American politics becoming extremely polarized, the scope and type of radio commercials that are produced will be challenged to offer rhetoric and copy that touches the heart and not deflect off the shield that surrounds the soul of most voters. The conditioning of the mind has been evolving since the first political radio commercials.
Scott Radio (www.scottradio.com) a radio political voice and script writing organization conducted a survey of over five hundred radio listeners in a quest to understand the mindset or comfort zone of the average radio listener. Some of the discoveries were as follows: The advent of Ipods®, Internet radio and satellite radio are just starting to take hold. The listener still enjoys local radio programming during a typical day, but the amount of time spent listening to local or traditional radio stations decreased by twenty percent during the past two years. Second, the tolerance level for commercials is eroding. Fifty percent of those surveyed stated that they have a quick “trigger” to avoid commercials. Finally, the survey revealed that for political radio advertising specifically, the over saturation by candidates during the campaign is reason enough to avoid commercial radio.
We are living in exciting and changing times. The political radio commercial is in danger of extinction unless clear and major changes are made. The landscape demands thoughtful, heartfelt and creative advertisements that mirror the non-political radio commercials. With the amount of money required to reach total name recognition in a political campaign, radio will be used less for issue dissemination and more for image building.
Scott Perreault is a radio and narration voice veteran with over twenty years of broadcasting and voice work experience. From the writing, production and development of radio campaigns to the recording of a two-hour audio book, Scott has experienced many facets of the voice business.
