Apply Advertising Filter *HERE*
June 13, 2011 by Norann Dillon
Filed under News, Norann Dillon
Originally posted on Norann’s blog.
“Work out your entire upper body in just six minutes a day, burning as much muscle energy as 42 minutes with a standard dumbbell!”
“Paint an entire room in less than one hour. Get perfect results every time!”
“Make $7,847 a month with a new home-based program!”
These are just a few of the television advertisements I’ve seen recently. Is there anyone out there disappointed that I didn’t include the product names so you could learn more about them?
I’m guessing not. Why? Because all of them sound like malarkey, to put it nicely. People seem to have an innate sense of what sounds like bologna when it comes to infomercials. I encourage folks to apply that same advertising filter to political advertising.
Alliance for a Better Minnesota is running television commercials to convince people that a tax increase is the best way to resolve the state’s budget impasse. Here’s the transcription:
“How we solve our state’s budget problem will say a lot about our values. [specific legislator] is choosing to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class with drastic cuts to education and health care and his/her plan will eliminate jobs and increase property taxes all so the richest 2% don’t have to chip in. Governor Dayton’s plan will protect the middle class and 98% of Minnesotans will have no tax increase.”
Honestly, I laughed out loud at the “chip in” line. The words and how they are delivered make it sound like “the rich” don’t pay any taxes. Ok, sure.
I know these ads will resonate with people who are convinced that taking the property (in this case, income) from people who rightfully earned it is somehow consistent with freedom and self-determination. But I know there are a lot of independent thinkers in this state. I hope they they apply their advertising filters to these ads especially with ABM’s track record of “misleading” and “false” advertisements from last year’s gubernatorial campaign (seeFactCheck and KSTP).
WCCO looked at the claim from this ad about “drastic cuts to education” and labeled it “misleading” -
Education funding is actually going up. The money the state pays for every student will rise: from $5,124 per pupil this year, to $5,145 next year and to $5,165 in 2012.
As I noted in a previous post, the MN Department of Revenue concluded that the tax burden as a percentage of income will increase for ALL taxpayers under Governor’s Dayton’s plan. So much for “98% of Minnesotans will have no tax increase.”
I hope Minnesotans cast a skeptical eye on ALL political advertising that this budget impasse is likely to generate. Both kinds of advertising, whether it’s for the Sham-wow or a paved bicycle trail that you’ll never use, are about spending your money. The essential difference is that the former is voluntary and the latter is not. So please be informed with facts, not swayed by emotion.
