Less Happens When Hillary Talks about Herself

Most people know that talking about themselves is not a good way to build relationships with others. Companies have learned a similar lesson – talking about product features resonates less with prospects than talking about benefits. The same seems to apply to political “selling” as well.

In a recent Hillary Clinton commercial, Hillary appears on camera and uses the pay gap between CEOs and workers to say that the deck is stacked and that she wants to return things to how they were when she was growing up.

The ad has a few strong moments, particularly when she passionately advocates the need to feel rewarded and reaches out to a constituent with a handshake. But overall the ad is only modestly activating. There are long segments as the commercial unfolds when neither positive or negative reaction move, such when she harkens back to her life story, talks about what she wants to do, and wraps things up in the ending.

Political ads can be very activating, but they can also fall flat even when they are talking about core messages. While people are seeing what is being shown and hearing what is being said, the ad itself is not always connecting with underlying values and beliefs, muting individual emotional response and reducing its effectiveness.

Here’s how a sample of New Jersey voters, the majority of whom said they were Hillary Clinton supporters, responded to the 30-second ad “Reshuffle the Deck” during the 10 days leading up to the first debate:

Note: The ad was studied used facial electromyography, a neuro-physiological measure of how people feel about the things they see and hear based on a biological response. fEMG can deepen understanding from traditional focus groups and survey research techniques when a person in unaware of his or her feelings or when they may be inclined to share their feelings because he or she simply wishes to or because the dynamic of telling someone else what they feel makes their response different from what it would be if the other person were not present, such as in a voting booth.