Political ads conclude with a disclaimer that the
politician being endorsed has sanctioned the spot. Usually, the
person will say or be quoted as saying “I approve this message."
It is a requirement.
During 2002, the
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was passed, along with the Stand
By Your Ad provision. The Act, which was backed by then-senators
John McCain and Russell D. Feingold, was intended to further
legitimize campaign contributions by banning large corporate
donations.
Stand By Your Ad
mandates that anyone running for federal office stamp “I approve
this message” as part of their campaign commercials. The goal
was to curb muckraking, where candidates would lob insults and
accusations at one another. With Stand By Your Ad, lawmakers
were hoping political candidates would think twice before
engaging in dirty tactics and then attempting to deny any
involvement.
The Federal Election
Commission (FEC) is very specific about how that disclaimer
should appear. According to the FEC, the written statement must
come at the end of the ad, appear for at least four seconds, be
readable against a contrasting background, and occupy at least 4
percent of the vertical picture height. The candidate will
typically identify themselves and say the message aloud.
If the message was not
approved by a candidate, then the spot will typically name the
entity that is responsible—a political committee, group, or
person. There is also usually language about who financed the
commercial.
Negative campaign ads
made up 29 percent of political persuasion spots in 2000, and
that number rose to 64 percent in 2012. In the week before the
2016 presidential election, 92 percent of ads were characterized
as negative.
One possible reason: By
stamping a negative message with “I approve,” candidates might
actually be perceived as more credible by voters, as they are
showing that they are willing to stand behind what viewers infer
to be truthful statements.
In a study of 2,000
people using both real and fictional ads, researchers found that
“I approve this message” did not change their perception of
positive ads or personal attack ads, but did increase their
confidence in politicians using policy-based attack ads.