Andover Advertising

It's time for the races: Andover student presidential races.
Walls, windows, magazine stands, everything imaginable, become a giant billboard for dozens of loose colorful paper poster ads lumped around and on top of each other, fluttering with every person's passing and door opening, sporting the smiling faces of candidates and their compadres as you walk by.

They are a spectacular display of creativity, wit, and spectacle. Funny, original, and colorful, these advertising clumps make people stop in groups at their feet to read, or even more so, respond to their bright pictures and bold text.

Advertising in American history evolved from an industry strategizing the promotion of a product, to the promotion a brand, to the promotion of an abstract idea associated with a brand. The American advertising landscape is shaped by combinations of all three: there are the ads which highlight product qualities (cost being one of them), and those that do not even feature the product.

What is the Andover market like?
Essentially, candidates are products being ruthlessly marketed to the hearts and minds of a vote-flaunting consumer. In the first round, 18 potential candidate products compete in the Andover market and the 12 most popular products qualify for the next round of market exposure. All candidates are 11th graders appealing to consumers from all four grades.

The ad campaign trying to sell these candidate products must appeal to the most, the best. What is the Andover's presidential advertising landscape?

All ads are presented on Letter or Tabloid size paper. Some use only text, but most use both text and pictures to varying degrees.

Carl Hardin's white posters blast "Vote for Hardin" in bold black text. This is equivalent to advertisements that say "Buy X", merely revealing the existence of a product.

Some posters advertise product qualities and characteristics. Dan Aronov highlighted a specific campaign platform issue of his in each poster, beside a picture of him doing something about the problem.

Mackay and Jackie Lender advertise themselves as being tied into a bigger idea of popularity, but nonetheless, the product itself is still being marketed, not the idea of a Mackay Presidency.

Other posters market the candidate or their platform as a brand image, tied to a greater idea. Cleveland's poster uses a play-on-words and fantastical picture to brand her campaign as a source of hope and possibility.

Jeremy Hutton aligns defines himself as an on-the-move, pro-active, problem-solving, adventurous candidate in his posters, emphasized by the cheesy idioms/catchphrases and outdoor sports pictures. Everything about Jeremy is branded as active.

The advertising landscape at Andover combine the many strategies of media advertising: spreading awareness about a product, highlighting positive characteristics about a product, tying a product to an idea, and promoting an entire, specific brand image surrounding the candidate and potential presidency. Whether conciously aware or not, Andover students think like marketeers: they understand the different methods of influencing/appealing to consumers and can remarket something normal as extraordinary using those methods.