Media metaphors: Two models for rhetorically criticizing the political television spot advertisement

In every election year, concern is raised about the spot commercial for and against various candidates. To date, little rhetorical‐critical research has been done concerning the political television commercial, though more has been done from a quantitative perspective. Two models of perspectives on the way the television spot message works are presented here—the transportation model and the evoked‐recall model. They imply the use of one of two message types: those using methods which focus on the logic or reasoning in the ad and those which focus on the ad from a metaphorical or dramatic methodology.