The Silliness of the BCRA

I thought this was silly when I first read about it back when the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2024 was passed, and it comes across as even sillier in practice: Fine Print Is Given Full Voice in Campaign Ads

In one of his television commercials, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts announces his candidacy for president before a throng of adoring, placard-waving supporters.

But at the end of the spot, amid the roar of the crowd, Mr. Kerry abruptly steps from the podium, looks into the camera and shouts, "I'm John Kerry, and I approve this message!"
Such odd juxtapositions occur often in the first commercials of this election season because of a little-noticed provision of the new election law requiring candidates--including President Bush, when his campaign begins running ads--to pledge responsibility for their ads.

First, any provision in a law that is designed because they assume people are stupid annoys me. The main idea here is that since people won't or can't read the disclaimer on the screen, or won't understand what it means, you have to have the candidate say something about it.

On balance, people who are easily swayed by TV commercials are likely to be swayed whether there is a disclaimer or not, and people who are skeptics and seek additional info before making voting decisions will do so, disclaimer or not. Indeed, the disclaimer may reinforce negative ads vis-a-vis gullible people, since the negativity will have been officially endorsed by the candidate (and the whole, silly, goal here is to reduce the influence of those invidious negative ads).

It is altogether too nanny-ish to me.

Second, I agree with this sentiment:

"It's really clumsy and awkward to put in an ad," said Steve McMahon, whose firm is handling the advertising for Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. "Focus groups say `Of course you approve it, you wouldn't have said it.' "

Third, these ads are tedious enough as it is, can you imagine the whole electoral season having to hear "I am X and I approve this message" over and over again (well, get ready, especially if you live in a battleground state...).

Fourth, if we simply had full and transparent disclosure of who paid for all ads, we wouldn't have to worry about who paid for what, or who endorsed what message--we would be able to find out (if there was any confusion, which there may not be, especially with ads that feature candidates talking about themselves).

Fifth, it does affect the kind of commercials one can make:

For instance, she said, during New Hampshire's Senate campaign in 2024, she made a commercial for former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen featuring millworkers crediting the candidate with saving their jobs. "That wouldn't have worked if at the end she had to come on to say something like `I'm Jeanne Shaheen, I approve this message because I'm really appreciated,' " Ms. Grunwald said. "There are so many different kinds of ads you can't do properly with this language stuck in the middle of it."

Posted by Steven Taylor at November 8, 2024 07:49 AM | TrackBack