Emoticons

The internet can be used to inspire. Can it engulf with emotion? Peter C. made the point in one of our earlier classes that the prevailing advantage of television advertising is its ability to evoke emotion.

It's tough to get away from the perception that the internet is a medium that conveys the message by text and the emotion by emoticons. The growing access to broadband has made multimedia distribution more realistic, with music, video and animation all working together through the internet to make an impact on the end user. Soon, multimedia will bring the internet to parity with television.

The real potential for the internet to exceed the emotional power of television is through interactivity. A give and take process, run against dynamic scripts, can build a crescendo of emotion that each member of the target audience is individually invested in. This would be a major new shift in the ability to connect with voters.