2004 Democratic TV Spots Analysis

In 2003 and 2004, the Democratic contenders for the White House ran at least 119 television spots. The first spot was broadcast by Governor Howard Dean on June 17, 2003 . Records of when television spots were broadcast are not available, but it appears that the television spot campaign began earlier than ever before during this campaign.

We content analyzed these television spots to understand the nature of these messages. We also compared them to historic presidential television spots (we have content analyzed presidential primary TV spots from 1952-2000).

The candidates' statements were mostly positive in these messages, and they were more positive than primary television spots in earlier campaigns.

*only one candidate, John Kerry, used defense in these spots and this function was used only once.

We also analyzed the topic of their statements in these messages. Most ad remarks concerned policy issues (e.g., the war on terrorism, jobs and the economy, education, health care), four statements in ten of the candidates' statements in the 2004 Democratic primary TV spots were about character (e.g., honesty, leadership ability, compassion). There was a greater emphasis on policy, and less on character, than in earlier campaigns.

Democratic Primary TV Spots graphs and analysis