Campaign Strategies and Advertisements

Key Question: How can campaign strategy and advertisements help candidates get elected?

Table of Contents

2020 Battleground States

Video Clip: Arizona (3:49)

Video Clip: Florida (6:19)


Video Clip: Michigan (3:07)

Video Clip: New Hampshire (6:19)


Video Clip: Nevada (6:19)


Video Clip: North Carolina (3:00)

Video Clip: Ohio (2:29)

Video Clip: Pennsylvania (3:59)

Video Clip: Wisconsin (4:37)

2020 Campaign Strategies

This lesson has students view videos clips of campaign advisers and party officials discussing how their campaigns are adjusting their strategies in response to public health concerns. Students will use these video clips to explain traditional campaign strategies, current challenges and how campaigns are adapting these strategies for the 2020 election. From this, students will develop a list of best practices for campaigns to use.

Campaign Advertisement Analysis

Video Clip: What Makes a Good Campaign Ad? (10/25/2018- 4:54)


Video Clip: Campaign Advertisements on Facebook (4/10/2018- 2:06)

Bell Ringer: Opposition Research (2 Clips)

Historical Campaign Ads

This lesson looks at what factors make good campaign advertisements using historical examples.

In this lesson, students will use a choice board to view videos of historical presidential campaign advertisements and analyze the features found within each to determine the overall effectiveness.

Culminating Assessment:

  • Which kinds of campaign ads are most effective, and why?

  • Why do some ads tell a personal story instead of address campaign issues?

  • How trustworthy are attack ads in your opinion?

  • Do you think it would be more effective for a candidate to advertise on social media or traditional media? Why?