Political spots

United States, 1981

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Episode of Series “Media Probes”.
Political advertising revealed as an elaborate form of product packaging: in the absence of meaningful debate, image is paramount. Discusses the role of television advertising. Examples are shown and discussed with the producers. Also examines the function of opinion polling in determining media strategies. Elementary guide to the reading of TV political promo spots. Also discusses the fact that two-thirds of campaigning funds are spent on television advertising. (16mm print is kinescope transfer from video original.)

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In ACMI's collection

Credits

co-producers/directors

Alan Goldberg

Mickey Lemle

production company

Laybourne

Lemle

WQED

Duration

00:28:48:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1981

Appears in

Media Probes

Group of items

Media Probes

Explore

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

015792

Language

English

Subject categories

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Advertising

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Mass media - Political aspects

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Television

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Television advertising

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Television and politics

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Advertising

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Mass media - Political aspects

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Political campaigns - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Political science

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Public opinion

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Imagery (Psychology)

Television

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/77508--political-spots/ |title=Political spots |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=5 July 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}