Course Blog 20: AdWorld (Jennifer)

I documented my day on my personal blog, so you can view the non-event of being an absentee voter there. What I will most remember about Election 2012 is the inundation of images, stories, ads, and editorials that were in yards, in my mailbox, on my television, in phone conversations, etc. Since I wasn't voting in person, I only saw this detritus without seeing the civic event itself. This means that for the past six months, while I've felt immersed in the drama, the actual day seemed rather anticlimactic. Therefore, rather than focusing on the day of the election, I'd like to shift attention back to where most of the action happened: the race.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, as part of her list of descriptors for today's museum, says that it can be an "artifact to be displayed in its own right, along with its history, operations, understandings, and practices." Therefore, I want to preserve an important artifact: the targeted advertising. Since advertising is becoming increasingly important and diverse, I anticipate Disney will create an AdLand park in the near future, one element of which will dedicated entirely to political advertising, with a special exhibit for Election 2012.

Image of Disneyland's theme park (as edited by me to add AdLand) originally from a teacher's blog. 

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett also mentions the trend, as we saw in the Center for History's living photos on Prohibition and the polio vaccine, of "experiential" exhibits. As an instructor, I've found that the more active and invested students are in their education, the more they learn and enjoy the process. Therefore, I am happy to jump on the experiential bandwagon. One of the trends I've noticed in museums lately have been what I'm going to call "self-identifying" exhibits. For example, Kohl's Children's Museum has an exhibit called "All About Me," where you can "find out more about your likes and dislikes, your abilities and qualities, and find out what makes each visitor special and unique." Children can record their own voices, see themselves from various angles, and build bodies onto a skeleton. I remember that one of Chicago's large museums also ran a similar exhibit, but with more of a tech angle. The IUPUI's Advanced Visualization Lab showcased a four panel 3D screen, which would be a perfect way to integrate these various pieces into an exhibit about the targeted advertising campaign of the 2012 election.



Step 1: 
Visitors will use a touch panel screen to answer non-personally identifying (meaning we can't steal their identities because of their answers) questions about their age, race, socioeconomic status, area code, religious affiliation, family status (single/head of household/dependent) and gender. They will then step into the 3D space and put on the glasses.
Step 2: 
The space will be designed based on their answers to the questions. Using research on the way of life of those who voted in the election, their 3D four-room homes will be designed as a voter's home would have been at the time. (For example, if they are a 18-30 year old with a medium income or in school, but without any dependents, their home will be furnished by IKEA. If they are wealthier heads of household, they get Room & Board instead.) There will be between 5-10 options. Each space will have televisions, computers, radios, iPads/smart phones, and mailboxes.
Step 3: 
The visitor will move around the space, opening the mailbox, turning on the TV, etc. and being bombarded by ads from the campaign. Once an option is turned on, it can't be turned off, so by the end, they will be surrounded by the campaign, with ads being shown in chronological order as they appeared on the market. After about 2 minutes, they will be shown a box that will allow them to change one of their identifying characteristics (they can move to one of the battleground states, change their socioeconomic status, race or gender). Then the ads will change, showing the ways in which the campaigns shifted their message based on the demographics. (We'll limit this to the presidential campaign for the sake of time.) I think it's important to see ads that are geared toward a non-you audience so the visitors can better identify the pathetic techniques. For example, I occasionally saw ads that were clearly directed at a non-me audience, and found them amusing, such as Richard Murdock's ad featuring his elderly father or Joe Donnelly's showing him fixing his own truck.
Step 4:
After they've learned "everything" about the candidates from the advertising, they leave the 3D booth and go to a voting booth, voting for the candidate of their choice.
Step 5:
As they leave the exhibit, there will be informational boards discussing the impact of advertising on the 2012 election, the amount of money spent, the importance of the Citizens United decision, etc. Of course, as the ads will probably be rather stuplimitious, the visitors may just walk out without voting or reading the signs. They will probably return to Animal Kingdom in stunned silence. Also, the exhibit may not be entertaining for particularly young children, so they can go to a secondary exhibit about antiquated political cartoons, such as those from Schoolhouse Rock and Animaniacs.