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Spot the Spin: Politics and Public Relations

Spotting the Spin: Contest

OVERVIEW

Candidates have always used media to spread the message of their campaigns. Whether print or electronic, communicating with their constituents is vital in an election cycle, but how best to convey that message in a way that connects with and engages voters? In this exercise, you get to show what ways you think work best and give it your own creative flair. We will post the finished designs to the UAB Libraries Instagram page, and a three-member jury panel (made up of UAB faculty in CAS) will vote on the most effective designs. These designs will be printed, framed, and displayed next to our exhibit of official presidential election memorabilia in Sterne Library. You will also have the opportunity to have your work permanently stored in our Digital Commons.

EXERCISE

Redesign one of the following ads for a modern audience. Using a design platform (such as Adobe Creative Cloud) create a poster that conveys the same message for today's audience. As you design, consider if you want the ad to be an acclaim (positive message about the candidate), an attack (a negative message about the candidate), or a defense (responding to an attack). You can create your poster for any medium (social media, print, etc) but it must be printable as an 8X10 in. print so that we can consider it for posting.

Questions to consider in your design:

  • What is the message you intend?
  • Who is your audience? Does this affect the message you intend to send?
  • What elements work best to get your intention across? What would your audience engage with more, visual or text? Flashy or subdued? Pulling on heartstrings or straight facts?
  • Do you want to control your message or open it up for wider sharing/distribution?

For your reference, check out the Spot the Spin guide from UAB Libraries for more helpful hints for design, background resources, and a link to the digitized Benoit Presidential Collection.

GENERATIVE AI

The use of Generative AI is allowed, but in moderation and only with permission of your instructor. You must acknowledge what prompt you used, and how much of the work was created by you, and what was created by the AI. We want to see YOUR ideas and creativity!

Instructions

Choose ONE of the following examples. Click on the attached images and review the entire document for the exercise.

Examples