The Edwards Campaign and Advertising

Since the beginning of his run, Edwards used the internet as a main source of advertising for his campaign. He used YouTube and various on-line social networking sites as a way to connect with voters. Edwards’ senior campaign advisor, Joe Trippi, said “that you need to use the Internet, blogs, technology, YouTube, to reach out to people”(NYT). The Edwards campaign uses a new way to track its success besides how much money they are raising and how well they are doing in the polls, his campaign uses a 9- day calendar that tracks how many hits his camping site is receiving. Perhaps Edwards focused on internet advertisement to reach out to the young voters, who are frequent internet users. Mrs. Edwards stated that "the Internet is the principal way we are communicating with voters right now” (NYT). I suspect that another reason that his campaign used the internet as their main way to reach voters is the fact that the traditional media has been focused on Clinton and Obama far more than Edwards. In a campaign coverage index from January 6th through the 11th, Edwards only received 7% of the media coverage, which was less than a fifth of what Hillary earned (The Horses Mouth). The unbalanced coverage that Edwards received has forced him to look beyond the traditional methods to get his message across in a battle against two “celebrity candidates”, who clearly have captured the media’s attention.

--Kristin Herron

The Horses Mouth Link:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2008/01/study_john_edwa.php

The New York Times Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/us/politics/01edwards.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnlx=1203355850-3Vgmp8T%208PCZC8%20vQxeAyw