Political Ads: The Pen May Be Mightier Than The Sword, But The Image Is King

As a relationship expert, I can tell you that using less-than-flattering images of candidates in a political race most definitely will do damage to the candidate being skewered. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but in today’s times, the image is king. Technology has made communicating much more image intense to the extent that words are truncated and abbreviated because of IM’ing and texting messages.

All the news that fits, we print, was always a journalism joke, riffing on the New York Times slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print,” but never has it been more fitting than now when the medium influences the message because of the size of the ipod, cell phone read out area or computer screen that the message is coming across. POS means parent over shoulder, in three letters instead of 18 with 2 spaces included between words, leaving room for more message.

Images make a much quicker statement than any words or text message. Politicians are wise to use images to get their messages across to more, more quickly. There’s also no need for writers when an image can convey, without need for reference points or spell check, a message to millions.

Without judgment on the morality of sending out negative images, images, themselves, are very powerful tools for campaigns this election season.