Run an election campaign

Getting started

• Most Australian members of parliament have an advertising presence. Discuss the following questions with your class: 
  • If you were a member of parliament, how would you promote yourself?
  • What messages would you communicate when representing yourself in political advertising?
  • What are the different methods of political advertising you have seen or heard?
  • Why might it be considered important by Australian political parties to invest in political advertising?
• Collect examples of print and video political advertisements. These can be sourced from the offices of local representatives, social media, YouTube or political party websites.

Activity (up to 120 minutes)

1. Show the class the collected political advertisements. Lead a see, think, wonder thinking routine about the advertisements, noting similarities and differences between the examples.
2. Use the Analysing political advertisements worksheet to draw student attention to features such as setting, colour and slogans used in the advertisement, and to help students analyse the messages that are being communicated in the advertisement.
3. Draw students’ attention to the fact that these advertisements target voters in specific electorates and states. Discuss why political parties might want to target specific groups of voters at election time. How could a platform like social media be effective for doing this. 
4. Divide the class into small groups, who will work together as political parties for this activity. Students may like to work again with their group from the Create Political Parties activity.
5. In their small groups, give students time to decide on the following:
   • party name
   • party leader
   • key values (party platform)
   • 2-3 key issues they plan to address (party policies)
   • an identifying feature such as a slogan, icon or colour.

Students will have made these shared decisions about their party platform and policies already if they have completed the Create political parties activity. 

6. Inform students their task is to develop a political advertisement to showcase their party’s platform and policies as part of an election campaign. The purpose of the advertisement is to raise awareness of the party’s platform and policies so Australians with similar values and goals can consider voting for their candidates.
7. Distribute the Design a political advertisement worksheet. Students can use the worksheet to plan out their advertisement in their groups, including the responsibilities of different group members.
8. Students can then develop their advertisement. Remind students that they can refer to the examples when designing their advertisement. Their political advertisement could be:
   • a short video
   • a social media post
   • a poster or roadside corflute
   • a brochure or newsletter for a letterbox drop
   • a 'sound bite' for radio with a catchy slogan or saying
   • branded merchandise such as t-shirts, badges and stickers
   • a script explaining what the political party stands for, to be used by candidates when meeting their constituents.
9. Students share their advertisements with the whole class. Ask the Party leader to give a short speech explaining the decisions that went into designing their advertisement. Why do they believe their advertisement will persuade the voters they have chosen to target?

Discussion questions

• Imagine you are an Australian voter who saw all the advertisements we viewed today a month before election time. How would you feel after being exposed to this range of advertisements? Do you think they would help you decide who you were going to vote for – why or why not?
• How effective is political advertising as a tool for sharing political messages? Who does it reach? Who does it leave out? If there are people it doesn't reach, how might a candidate or parliamentarian reach those people?
• Political parties have budgets for political advertising. If you were making decisions about spending money, what form of advertising would you spend the most money on, and why? 
• Social media is a key part of political advertising. Do you think this is a powerful form of political advertising? Why or why not?
• Media literacy is the ability to look critically at media messages. A person with good media literacy can tell when media is trying to influence their thinking. Why is it important in a democracy for citizens to have good media literacy? 

Extension

Explore the Australian Electoral Commission’s Get Voting education resource and hold a class election.

• Elections and voting
• Getting involved
• Years 5+6
• Years 7+8