{"pk":46948,"title":"Ads and Editorials: How Pretreatment Reduces the Persuasiveness of Interest Group Advertisements","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Advertising studies commonly examine the effects of one-sided treatments. However, political communication campaigns are competitive environments where voters are likely to hear more than one perspective. Because of this dynamic, the persuasive effects of single-sided ads may be less likely to hold in a competitive environment. When respondents are exposed to arguments from both sides of a ballot proposition issue, can the disclosure of a credible group help an advertisement overcome prior opinions? I address this question using a randomized experiment that includes ballot proposition campaign ads. In the experiments, I manipulate the pretreatment environment by exposing some respondents to a newspaper editorial in order to provide them with prior opinions that might cause them to resist subsequent advertisements. I also vary the presence or absence of campaign finance disclosure within the advertisements. In all cases, the presence of a credible editorial is associated with a change in support for the initiative. However, the use of a credible campaign finance disclosure has a far less consistent effect. While campaign finance disclosures from credible groups can help counteract prior beliefs that citizens may hold, I find that the magnitude of these changes is somewhat small.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"political advertising"},{"word":"campaign effects"},{"word":"ballot initiatives"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xm556c3","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Matthew","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lesenyie","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2024-01-23T00:01:23+05:30","date_accepted":"2024-01-23T00:01:23+05:30","date_published":"2024-01-01T05:30:00+05:30","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cjpp/article/46948/galley/35490/download/"}]}