Using an experimental survey design, this study evaluated an advertising campaign developed by the College Republican National Committee targeting Millennials in the 2014 midterm elections. Three particular advertisements from Operation Red Campus were selected and tested using a pre-survey and two post-surveys. Due to data constraints, only the results of the first post-survey were used in this analysis. This campaign was designed in response to the Republican Partys continued problems of low youth turnout and poor party perceptions. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of the strategies employed by the CRNC to target 18-24-year-olds with this campaign, adding to the limited body of literature on the subject. Following the pre-survey, respondents were exposed to randomized clips of one of the randomized CRNC advertisements or a control advertisement for the television show from which they were based. I hypothesized that respondents would be able to identify that the ads in the treatment condition were political in nature and that those exposed to the treatments would exude more positive views of the Republican Party and less positive views of Democrats. Findings showed that while the CRNC advertisements did significantly decrease Democratic favorability, there was no significant change among Republicans. Additionally, the results showed that the ads produced no change in voting behavior toward Democrats but significantly changed voting behaviors away from the Republican Party. The implications of these findings are analyzed and discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04132015-121922 |
| Date | 27 April 2015 |
| Creators | Schmidt, Ellen Mullee |
| Contributors | Mann, Christopher, Johnson, Martin, Dunaway, Johanna |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04132015-121922/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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