Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have used music, television, and movie starts in their ads this cycle. In addition to popular Hollywood producer and writer Shonda Rhimes and her female actors, the Clinton campaign used Morgan Freeman as the narrator of a biography spot called, “All the Good.” The Sanders campaign used the famous harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” in a promotional ad of the same name. But not all ads referencing pop-culture have the same effects. SpotCheck raters responded much more favorably to the Sanders and than the Clinton ad – on everything from its quality and truthfulness to its effectiveness.
While both ads helped their candidates, the Sanders ad was boosted his favorable ratings by 8 points and lowered his unfavorable ratings by 3 points relative to a control group who saw no political ads. The Clinton ad only raised her favorables by 2 points and actually increased her unfavorable ratings by 3 points – for a net-negative impact.
While equal numbers of people were emotionally engaged with both ads as they were playing, Sander’s ad had a significant edge over Clinton’s. Roughly half the reactions to the Sanders ad were positive, but only about a quarter of the reactions to the Clinton ad were positive (the rest were negative).
How much of an effect can the images and music (or the sound of the narrator’s voice) have in an ad? The Sanders ad has no spoken content until the end when Sanders approves the message – what people see and hear are mainly images of Americans and the song “America.” With just those simple elements, nearly three-quarters of our respondents said the Sanders ad made them happy and hopeful. Only half the respondents in the Clinton condition said they felt this way after seeing her ad.
The Sanders ad’s SpotCheck score: 384
The Clinton ad’s SpotCheck score: 161