I approve this message

In American politics, "I approve this message" (sometimes in the past tense, with "authorize" in place of "approve," or with "ad" instead of "message") is a phrase said by candidates for federal office in political advertisements on television and radio in order to comply with the so-called "Stand By Your Ad" provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), enacted in 2002, that requires "a statement by the candidate that identifies the candidate and states that the candidate has approved the communication". The provision was intended to force political candidates running any campaign for office in the United States to associate themselves to their television and radio advertising, thereby discouraging them from making controversial claims or attack ads.

Purpose and origins

Attack ads that criticize an opponent's political platform quickly rose to popularity in United States since the 1960s. In more recent times these ads became increasingly ad hominem attacks, some of them appearing to be anonymous, that turned off voters. Proponents of the "Stand By Your Ad" provision, such as Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) who sponsored the provision in the BCRA,cite news | last =Sidoti | first =Liz | title =Stating the obvious in political ads could limit negative commercials | publisher =Associated Press | date =2003-11-13 | url = http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20031113-1403-standbyyourad.html | accessdate =2008-09-06 ] advocate that by forcing candidates to associate themselves with their attacks in the ads, voters would be more inclined to punish them for using such a strategy, thus discouraging candidates from campaigning in such a manner.cite news | last =Memmott | first =Mark | title ='Tagline' could alter tone of ads | publisher =USA Today | date =2004-03-09 | url = http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-03-09-tone-tv-ads_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA | accessdate =2008-09-06 ]

The earliest roots of the provision can be traced to the 1996 Senate election in Minnesota, where a grassroots movement known as "Minnesota Compact" attempted to combat negative campaigning that was rampant in the state, though what was proposed remained voluntary.cite paper | first = Kelly | last = Patterson | coauthors = Kristina Gale, Betsey Gimbel Hawkins, Richard Hawkins | title = I approved this message: a study of political disclaimers | publisher = Gale Group | date = May 2005 | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_4_26/ai_n13776973 | accessdate =2008-09-06 ]

In 1999, the "Stand By Your Ad" provision was brought up again, this time in the 1999 North Carolina General Assembly. The "Campaign Reform Act" S.881 was ratified and signed into state law on 21 July 1999. The required candidates or its campaign committee (in this example, for television ads) to:

Following the perceived success of the "Stand By Your Ad" provision in North Carolina state law in reducing negative campaigning, similar measures were introduced into other state legislatures. Two years later, a bill was introduced in Congress to extend this provision to Federal law. It was eventually absorbed into the BCRA, which addressed the issue of financing of political campaigns, that was signed into law by George W. Bush on 27 March 2002.

Implementation

Under Section 311 of the BCRA, Section 318 the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441d) was amended to include the "Stand By Your Ad" provision. The most prominent effect was on television ads, which now required candidates :

cquote|a statement that identifies the candidate and states that the candidate has approved the communication. Such statement--

(i) shall be conveyed by--

(I) an unobscured, full-screen view of the candidate making the statement, or
(II) the candidate in voice-over, accompanied by a clearly identifiable photographic or similar image of the candidate; and

(ii) shall also appear in writing at the end of the communication in a clearly readable manner with a reasonable degree of color contrast between the background and the printed statement, for a period of at least 4 seconds.

The phrase can be said at any point during the ad, but is typically inserted at the beginning or the end. The provision also covers radio advertising, in which an audio voice over of the candidate approving the communication is required.

If the advertisement is not in English, the phrase is given in the same language; in the 2004 presidental election for example, George W. Bush's Spanish-language advertisements ended with the message "Soy George W. Bush y aprobé este mensaje".

Failure to comply may result in penalties from the Federal Elections Commission, but more importantly, loss of the "lowest rate" status for political ads, for the entire duration of the campaign. However, this rule is enforced at the discretion of the station manager, and often only through legal action by the opposing candidate. For example, in the 2008 Minnesota senate election, challenger Al Franken accused Senator Norm Coleman of omitting 1.1 seconds of the required visual of the candidate, a mistake that could potentially double the advertising rates and costs millions to Coleman's campaign. [cite web |url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0908/Will_Colemans_twosecond_mistake_cost_him.html |title=Coleman's two-second mistake could cost millions |author= |last=Thrush |first=Glenn |publisher=The Politico | date=2008-09-11 | accessdate =2008-09-16 ] Including Coleman at the same duration of campaigning, Republicans in four Senate state races were subject to investigation by Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications Commission for allegedly short-changing on "Stand By Your Ad" disclaimer. [cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302420.html |title=Federal Agencies to Consider Complaints Over GOP Ads |author= |last=Mosk |first=Mathew |publisher=The Washington Post | date=2008-09-13 | accessdate =2008-09-16 ]

Online advertising

A well-known loophole to this "Stand By Your Ad" provision is that it does not cover any form of advertising over the Internet. Campaigns now regard the Internet a medium that is as important as television, radio and print advertising, or perhaps even more important due to its cost-effectiveness and rate of propagation.cite web |url=http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,115291/printable.html |title=Political Smears Thrive Online |author= |last=Spring |first=Tom |publisher=PC World | date=2004-03-23 | accessdate=2008-09-16 ]

Candidates have been known to take the mudslinging online, hoping that it would create sufficient controversy that media outlets would afford the coverage it needed without associating themselves to the attack. During the 2004 presidental election for instance, George W. Bush's campaign produced a web video with the conclusion "Kerry (D-MA) -- Brought to you by the special interests" and sent it out to six million supporters via email.cite news | last =Woodruff | first =Judy | title =Stand by your ad | publisher =Cable News Network | date =2004-02-16 | url = http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/16/elec04.hiw.ads/index.html | accessdate =2008-09-16 ] Another known tactic is for any campaign or person to upload an exclusive online attack ad, known or anonymously, on a video-sharing website such as YouTube without taking any credit for it. This was highlighted by the media after an anonymous editor uploaded a parody 1984 ad depicting Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as "Big Brother" during the 2008 Democratic primaries, which garnered over five million views online.cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/27/youtube/ |title=Attack ads on the sly |author= |last=Scherer |first=Michael |publisher=Salon | date=2007-03-27 | accessdate=2008-09-06 ]

Wyden has since proposed to extend the requirement to political advertising on the Internet. The sequel "Stand By Your Internet Ad Act" was introduced into the United States Congress on 12 April 2005, but has received little momentum since.

Reception

Critics perceive the statement to be awkward and make candidates look foolish.Fact|date=October 2008 This was particularly so at the beginning of the BCRA's introduction: candidates after recording a message or live speech would have to turn their heads or close in on the camera to verbally approve their communication. Howard Dean, who ran for the 2004 Democratic nomination, did take some unwarranted attacks from people who were not aware of the act, who thought he was being self-important or obvious in the phrasing.cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_5_25/ai_n6078650 |title=Stand by your ad |author=Mark H. Rodeffer |publisher=Campaigns & Elections | date=June 2004 | accessdate=2008-09-16 ] While opponents of the provision at its time of introduction lodged challenges in court that it would (violate?) the First Amendment, others believed that the law merely stiffened disclaimer guidelines and had no effect on limiting free speech.

Campaigns have lamented that the seconds used for the candidates to approve the communication results in less time for them to communicate their message, increasing their costs of campaigning. One media adviser mentioned that the requirement reduced the number of positive spots that the producer can have.cite news | last =Rutenberg | first =Jim | title =Fine Print Is Given Full Voice in Campaign Ads | publisher =The New York Times | date =2003-11-08 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9505E0DF1339F93BA35752C1A9659C8B63 | accessdate =2008-09-06 ] Other candidates, however, regard it as an opportunity to affirm or encapsulate the theme of their message: "I'm Tom Kean, Jr. Together, we can break the back of corruption. That's why I approved this message." In a few instances, the candidate would take the opportunity to attack their political opponent further.

It was also pointed out by linguistic academics that the phrase "I approve this message" is grammatically flawed, and that "I approve of this message" is more accurate.cite news | last =Safire | first =William | title =A message to approve (of?) | publisher =International Herald Tribune | date =2008-05-11 | url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/11/opinion/edsafire.php | accessdate =2008-09-06 ]

A study by Brigham Young University, however, revealed that advertisements where the candidate has approved the communication had a more positive impact in comparison to those that did not, regardless of whether they knew the candidates well. It also concluded that the provision made viewers have more confidence that the political campaigns were run in a truthful and fair manner.

Popular culture

The phrase is sometimes used humorously in non-political discussion. In the 2004 campaign season, various businesses used this phrase in their ads in order to draw greater attention to themselves.

Several politicians have made references to the phrase in aspects of their campaign outside radio or television advertising. In the 2006 elections, Senator Joseph Lieberman declared "I approve this election" in his acceptance speech, following his victory as a third party candidate (Connecticut for Lieberman). While just before the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton made news by announcing that "she did not approve this message", referring to a John McCain campaign using clips of her attacking Barack Obama during the Democratic primaries.

References