Linky links

[purplecat]

US election: what impact do celebrity endorsements really have?
I'd been wondering this and am a little surprised at the conclusion that celebrity endorsements are important, since I'd a feeling that they were the sort of thing that only seemed impressive and compelling to people who were already signed up to a cause.
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'Don't feed the trolls' really is good advice – here's the evidence
It must be said I've always thought "don't feed the trolls" sounded like good advice. But I have seen several think pieces which have asserted that trolls do not go away if ignored. I'm sure this research isn't the end of the story, but it is interesting none the less.
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Post-truth politics and the US election: why the narrative trumps the facts
Interesting analysis of "Post-truth politics" which digs into the issue of construction of narratives.
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Comments

[fififolle]

Interesting. And lends to the sense that with fame comes responsibility.

[purplecat]

It seems so sad, in a way, that people's vote can be influenced by movie stars who are no more qualified to make political decisions than the next man in the street.

[fififolle]

Yeah, I know. We're just programmed to follow the alphas, I think.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I suppose celebrity endorsements must work with other things, else advertisers wouldn't keep on using them.

There's a Heinlein short about this, I think. Wonder if I can find it ...

[purplecat]

My impression of advertising is that there is a lot of magic involved and no one is precisely sure what works, and a lot of it is just about keeping the brand name in people's minds or making them aware a product exists.

Certainly the once or twice I've agreed to do a market research questionnaire its involved a lot of me saying either "nope, not seen that one" or "yes!! I've seen that!! No I've no idea which supermarket it was for". I assumed there celebrity endorsements were just about catching people's eyes.

In the case of Trump and Clinton, you can hardly be unaware that there's a contest going on, which is why (until I read the article) I thought celebrity endorsements were kind of pointless.