What Democratic ads focused on vs. Republican ads
Plus: What do you think of Utah’s new flag design?
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
What Democratic ads focused on vs. Republican ads
What do you think of Utah’s new flag design?
Art museums would appreciate it if activists would stop vandalizing artwork to draw attention to climate change
These are my favorite 2022-23 NBA City Edition uniforms
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What Democratic ads focused on vs. Republican ads
Democrats and Republicans had two very different strategies in their messaging to voters through campaign ads.
The Wesleyan Media Project is out with a look at how frequently issues were mentioned in pro-Democratic and pro-Republican broadcast television ads over the year. Last month the group found that abortion was the No. 1 topic mentioned in Democratic ads while Republicans weren’t talking about it.
In their latest report, the group found pro-Republican ads mentioned abortion during the primaries, but mentions plummeted in the summer after the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs. Pro-Republican ads then shifted to inflation, the economy, and government spending (the budget) while Democrats focused on abortion and health care. Here’s what that looked like from January to Oct. 30 in races for U.S. Senate and House:
Discussion of issues in broadcast TV ads for federal races by party over time:
In gubernatorial races, pro-Democratic ads focused on the economy and budget at similar rates as pro-Republican ads, the report found.
Inflation hit campaigns this year, and costs for broadcast TV ads were driven up heavily by outside groups, according to the report. About 30% of ads came from outside groups, which aren’t associated with candidates’ committees.
“Because groups typically pay more for television ad time than candidates, their heavy presence on television drives up the final cost of the campaign,” Wesleyan Media Project co-director Erika Franklin Fowler said.
What do you think of Utah’s new flag design?
Utah’s new flag is here, now it just needs to be approved.
The Utah State Flag Task Force announced its selection for the state’s new flag last week. The proposed design, which the state legislature will vote on during its 2023 legislative session beginning in January, was adapted from one of 20 semifinalists the task force considered.
It’s a creative take on the standard triband, the flag style that uses three stripes. The middle “stripe,” white to represent mountain snow, juts upwards to form a mountain peak and dips down to encase a new state emblem. In the semifinalist design that most closely resembles the finalist, F in this chart, it only jutted up. The redesign feels far less ~Space Force~.
The red represents Southern Utah red rock and the blue represents Utah’s natural resources and the principles of knowledge, freedom, and optimism, the task force said. The hexagon emblem contains an eight-point star for Utah’s eight Tribal Nations, and a beehive, a longtime Mormon symbol for community and Industry, the state’s motto.
It looks contemporary — nobody sewing something like this in 1896 — but then again, neighboring Colorado’s flag looks remarkably modern, and it was adopted in 1911. If any U.S. region can push flag design into the future, it’s the West, America’s newest part.
For Utahns who aren’t loving the redesign, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson tweeted, “The ceremonial flag isn’t going away; instead, we’ll fly it on special occasions and official holidays. We can have both. We can celebrate both.”
Art museums would appreciate it if activists would stop vandalizing artwork to draw attention to climate change
Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso are among the artists whose work has been targeted in recent weeks by climate activists. Now museums are asking activists to knock it off.
The group Just Stop Oil has taken paint to a London Ferrari dealership (above) and Heinz tomato soup to Van Gough’s 1888 “Sunflowers” (London’s National Gallery said there was minor damage to the frame but the painting was unharmed).
Representatives from more than 90 museums in Europe and the U.S. signed a statement from the International Council of Museums saying the activist-vandals underestimate the fragility of the artwork they’re hitting.
“As museum directors entrusted with the care of these works, we have been deeply shaken by their risky endangerment,” the statement reads.
Just Stop Oil said after the “Sunflowers” soup incident that “We are on the brink of total social collapse. …Everything that we have loved, hold dear, have built and created, is on the line — art, music, film, dance, sports, community, culinary culture, architecture, agriculture, technology, public transport, the NHS, an abundance of nature… all of it.”
These are my favorite 2022-23 NBA City Edition uniforms
The latest edition of the Nike’s NBA City Edition uniforms have been unveiled, and we’ve got references to women’s suffrage, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and America’s most famous airport carpet. These are my favorites: