Your phone rings and a recorded voice tells you that Politician A likes to crush small squirrels driving his SUV and he also, by the way, voted against your mother’s birthday. That’s a robocall.
Robocalls are falling out of favor with voters, probably because at least 64% of us got one last year. Seven states have banned recorded calls, and 12 more states are considering a prohibition. Yet politicians continue to use robocalls to try to conquer the world -- $600,000 was spent in robocalls in the one week leading up to the 2006 elections. Robocalls remain the second-highest spending format for political advertising.
It's an interesting example of the tragedy of the commons -- all of us want peace on the phone lines, politicians as a whole are outlawing it, but each political candidate has a personal incentive to disrupt you at dinnertime. More than 90% of U.S. homes have signed up for Do Not Call, but the FTC DNC registry does not cover political organizations, charities, or phone surveyors. The media channel remains alive, as a whole despised, but probably still very effective. (Hmm. Can't vote for HIM. He crushes small squirrels.)
We suggest the politicians take a poll on this media format, and then listen.
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