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My friend John Florian who runs the on-line voice over news center Voice-Over Xtra! sent an email to me (and probably 1,000 of my closest friends) asking for some insight in to our workload for political voiceover projects during the 2010 mid-term elections that just blew through the U.S. like a cyclone.

The purpose of the survey, which I took, is to gauge (among other things) what types of political advertisements most voice talents voiced this season. Positive or negative? Issue or attack ads? Funded by PAC’s or other groups etc.

Nobody is asked to share their personal political beliefs or anything like that.

The most interesting result I want to find out from this survey is whether voice talents on average will or will not voice spots for issues or politicians they do not believe in. Some people will say no and some will say…it’s just a job and as a voice actor, I need to act like I believe in this or that; it’s not an endorsement.

I know for me, I have only one issue that I look at with possible political spots and if the spot or the candidate runs contrary to that belief, then I decline the business. Others might see things differently so I look forward to the survey results.

So if you did a political spot this year, go take the survey here.

Tags: advertising, commercials, political advertising, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter o'connell voiceover
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This is a political post but not in a Democrat or Republican kind of way.

You may have seen in the news last week as an “also in the news” feature after the Haiti and NBC late night imbroglio, that the Supreme Court issued a ruling that loosened restrictions on corporate campaign spending.

As viewers and listeners, this means more political campaign ads – soft, hard and/or nasty – but upwards in some estimates of $300,000,000 more in political ad spending in the next political cycle.

Whether or not you like that as a citizen or politico matters less to me that what that ruling means to me as a voice over talent of political spots for radio and TV. If you wanted to, say, only cut me in for .5% of that total in voice over work – I’d probably consider it.

Some voice talents don’t like to do political spots and some, like me, study the client/candidate for their stand on one or two issues of high importance and if he/she doesn’t match up, you pass on the spot.

So if you’re of a mind to, you might want to dust off your political commercial voice over demo and maybe think about updating it if you haven’t in a while. It looks like it’s gong to get politically busy pretty soon.

Tags: advertising, political advertising, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter o'connell voiceover
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