I Approve This Message, an exhibition about the emotional impact of political advertising in a landscape altered by the internet, was set to open at the New-York Historical Society this September.  The COVID-19 lockdown halted those plans, but [the NY Historical Society] wanted to share a few of the exhibition’s themes, particularly as we barrel towards our new date with destiny on election day, Nov. 3.

In this second of three posts, [the Society] is going to look back at what was hoped to be a crucial turning point in political advertising — a new legal provision called Stand by Your Ad that was supposed to deliver more accountability and less deception and negativity. (Read the first post here.)

You might think that TV ads don’t matter anymore — that they’re a quaint artifact made obsolete by Facebook and Google. But campaign budgets say differently: $6.7 billion is projected to be spent on advertising during the 2020 elections, including $4.9 billion on broadcast TV, cable, and radio ads. The presidential race alone between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is expected to account for $2.18 billion in ad spending.

One of the familiar elements of these ads will be “I approve this message,” the straightforward affirmation from the candidates that is tacked onto the beginning or the end of every TV or radio commercial. This fixture of political advertising was first heard during 2004 due to a legal provision called Stand by Your Ad. Much has changed in politics over the last 15 years, but Stand by Your Ad remains standing. As the 2020 presidential election hits high gear, we look back at what it accomplished; what it didn’t; and what you need to know about political advertising in an ever more frenetic messaging world.

Watch a compilation of presidential candidates “I approve this message”:

When was the first time you heard a politician say “I approve this message” in their television ad?

For most Americans, it was during the 2004 election, when the incumbent, President George W. Bush, a Republican, ran for reelection against Senator John Kerry, a Democrat. This message was the result of a new campaign finance law that included the Stand by Your Ad provision and required politicians to put their own personal stamp on their broadcast ads. While taken quite seriously at the time, it was also met with cynical fun and quickly became a punchline, a meme, and even a ringtone.

What are the origins of Stand by Your Ad?

In 2002, Senators John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, and Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, wanted to stem what they believed was the corrupting influence of money on the political process. They joined together to pass what became the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, also known as McCain-Feingold) to ban the “soft money” being used in unlimited amounts during political campaigns.  (Spending laws around political advertising have since changed again and the battles continue.)

McCain and Feingold also thought that by encouraging candidates running for federal office to explicitly “stand by” their TV and radio ads, the candidates would be less likely to run deceptive or negative messages. That belief resulted in the BCRA’s “Stand by Your Ad” provision, sponsored by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. After all, it seemed reasonable that the candidates who either didn’t tell the truth or who ran negative attack ads would alienate voters. This simple statement could provide at least some accountability.  Outside money, super PACS, and the internet, three of today’s biggest purveyors of misinformation, were not then a major factor.

While controversial for Democrats and for Republicans, the vote to pass the BCRA was based upon principle, not party— “a rare example of politics working the way civics textbooks would have it—with legislators voting largely on the basis of conviction, not calculation,” to quote The Atlantic.