Campaign Flyer Tier List 

With campaign season done, we’ve got a pile of mail to sort through. Thankfully, our Producer was kind enough to take on the task himself. Let’s see what his opinions might be for this past year’s set of Latah County election campaign flyers!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

The following video is hosted by Aiden Anderson’s producer.

Alright, let’s get this over with.

Greetings. It’s me, the producer. Look, the only thing happening this week is the county commissioners canvassing the votes for the 2024 election. Speaking personally, I nearly flipped my Civic off the side of the Lewiston grade upon hearing the results of the election. Talent suggested I get in on a video to help process things, and that’s how I got stuck doing this. 

Every year, the average American citizen receives about a metric ton of campaign flyers advertising who to vote for and for what reasons. Moscow Idaho is no exception.

In this video, we’ve got a stack of fliers received over the course of the 2024 campaign season, and I’ll be going through each one, attempting to rank them, leaving us with what I arbitrarily believe to be the best. And I was told this was going to be fun.

Truth be told, I don’t think there will be any S Tier campaign flyers in this stack, because, let’s be honest, no matter how much we might all pay attention to election stuff, we all get a little annoyed at all the extra mail. At some point, we’re all more inclined to throw them away than to give them any second thought. That being said, the point of this video is to compare them to each other, not to question the effectiveness of mail fliers in a given political campaign.

We’ve got a whole mix in here: flyers from Democrats, Republicans, and a few from independent groups, but the first one here is from the Latah County Republicans. This is from earlier in the season, going by how many events are scheduled on here. Got a few issues with it already. First, the structure is all over the place. No real order to it, and way too much going on. Second, there’s some instruction about voting, but not about who or what we’re supposed to be voting for. Third, they got QR codes for resources, but the one for the voter guide has been covered over by some mailing strip. This is a mess, but at least we know when every single forum happens. F tier.

This one’s like a breath of fresh air in comparison. Bold fonts, clear message, simple and direct. However, while it says a bunch about thanking Senator Foreman, it says nothing about voting for him, which, isn’t that the whole point? Good design, so-so message. B tier.

This one feels a sibling to the last one, maybe a little bit messier, but the same sorts of points. C tier.

Same deal as before, are we voting for this guy, or are we just sending him thank you notes? Still, the name and the instructions are as clear as they’ve been. C tier.

Good grief. There’s a whole family of these I guess. At least they’re encouraging people to engage with the candidates.

Ok, now we’re referencing the specific bills he pushed for in the smallest font possible., I’m gonna drop the rank just for the repetition of things. If you want to keep people interested, change things up a bit.

Really? Same thing here.

We get a change up with the first mailer from the Latah County Democrats. Even though this looks like official county paperwork, it’s got a “Paid for by the Democrats” label on it. It’s not flashy or designed to catch your eye. Unlike the other mailers, however, you could likely actually turn this in to the county in order to receive an absentee ballot. Unlike every flier we’ve seen so far, this one actually gives you something actionable to do that maps onto your vote. B tier.

Now we’ve got a letter and a donation envelope. Simple design, but direct and personal in a way a lot of other fliers aren’t. The volunteer options on the envelope are a nice touch. That being said, presenting all the calls to action at once comes off as a little intense. B tier.

Bold and direct. This morose policewoman decries the actions of Dan Foreman. Some of the clearest messaging we’ve seen so far, with somewhat unclear source material. On the other side, you have an explanation, and a call to action, along with a photo that looks like it was pulled from a true crime podcast. Solid appeal to fear, with some of the best design we’ve seen so far. A tier.

This is the first flier we’ve seen that actually tells you to vote for someone. Kathy Dawes is identified clearly, but there’s a lot of words here for how small the paper is. C Tier.

Same thing here, Kathy. If you want to say as much as you like, make the paper bigger. 

Alright, the first Prop 1 flyer. Very distinctive colors, very clear message, very clear endorsement, very clear website. Absolutely nothing about rank choice voting on here, but the design is solid. B tier.

This isn’t exactly a flyer, but it’s a valuable source of information direct from the Idaho Secretary of State. I don’t really want to rank this in the list; it’s more like a newspaper full of voting info, including a full text of Prop 1, arguments for and against the initiative, and plenty of general information. It’s a bit of a firehose, sure. But it’s got more information in it than most of the rest of these put together.

If you call yourself a dog mom, you’ll love this one. Aside from that, the font is pretty small, and I don’t know what to make of the rocketship in the corner. C tier.

Kathy really likes hanging onto the same design, doesn’t she? At least it’s consistent.

Another Prop 1 flyer. This one is clear and direct with its messaging, but the design is totally different, maybe appealing to a different audience. To me, that’s off-putting. And there’s still nothing about rank-choice voting. D tier.

Is this woman Julia Parker? Nope it’s this one. As tasteful as these stock photos are, they somewhat obscure the political messaging. That being said, the messaging here is super simple, so it balances out. C Tier.

Forget stock photos. Let’s use the corporate box art that you see in every ad that plays before a Youtube video. That said, the bullet points and candidates are clear, and it’s a solid rallying cry for the party platform. C tier.

Education endorsement! Bi-partisan, specific, and themed. Keeps things straightforward for those who care about that one specific issue. A tier.

An autobiographical flyer from Julia. The first flier with proper storytelling, but a little bit crowded. B tier.

Same thing again Kathy… gonna have to bring you down a notch.

This is a design change for the Republicans, trading any and all style for absolute clarity. Oh but look, it’s a little ballot on the inside! How clever. And if you fold it all the way out, you have the whole set of candidates and positions to take if you want to vote Republican. About as comprehensive as you can get. A tier.

This one is not so great. It suffers from the same issue of too much information, not enough space. Also, what are these fonts? D tier.

We’ve seen the Democrats appeal to fear before. Now it’s the Republicans’ turn. I have to say, it’s pretty similar to the Democrats in terms of design, minus the black-and-white  true crime podcast image of the person being attacked. Just based on the image though, Dan Foreman is a much easier villain to sell. B tier.

This one is tough. It’s a lot of paragraphs with maybe two or three relevant sentences. The images of the stuff they want us to watch for are small and packed together. Starting the letter with “neighbor”, while not doing much to establish familiarity… that’s not a good sign either. I’m sure if you knew these people it would mean more, but it’s not a very convincing setup. It’s more unique than some of the others, but that’s about it. D tier.

I respect the desire to reach all sorts of folks with another major design change from Prop 1, but it doesn’t change the fact that the design changes come off as disingenuous. Especially because we’ve yet to see something in these fliers about the ranked-choice part of Prop 1. At least the font is in style with the theme. And what about these folks who clearly didn’t want their picture taken? C tier.

The messaging about abortion could not be more clear on this flier. And again, there’s that photo of villain mode Dan Foreman. Hard to beat a bunch of newspaper headlines and bright font on dark backgrounds. A tier.

Sometimes, a simple quote and a bright photo are all you need. That said, this one has space to put some more info. (B tier)

This one feels like they turned up the clutter and turned down the color from the last one. At least it says to vote for her on it. (C tier)

Well, that’s a clear message. What are we supposed to do about it? If you want to find out, you have to flip around to the other side, which has all the important voting information. Seems like a waste of space, even if it’s clear. C tier.

This one’s even worse. Maybe I just don’t like the colors or the fake torn paper edges. Maybe it’s the fact that the back has a vastly different color palate than the front. Maybe it’s the fact that the ellipses in the third quote turns the sentence into a weird fragment. Either way, not a fan. D tier.

It seems Kathy’s campaign made one design and then left. If it’s about efficiency, well done.

And another design change from the Prop 1 folks. Appealing to George Washington is an interesting move, as is the whole “We the People” lingo. The quote they use is a bit sketchy, but then what experience did Washington have with open primary initiatives? C tier.

That’s a lovely park. What does it have to do with Julia Parker? What results has she delivered? C tier.

This is much clearer. What does Julia Parker do? Boom, list them all right there. There’s her face, vote for her. B tier.

Another anti-Kathy Dawes flier. I don’t mind the messaging and design, but it still contrasts with the face of an older lady. If she weren’t on this ad, I wonder if it would be more effective. C tier.

Here’s an example. The colors are less scary, but the words are serious. And it doesn’t show their faces. I wonder if that hurts this flier, seeing as you’re accusing them of defending predators. You’d think we’d want to know what they look like so we can avoid them like the criminals this ad makes them to be. Also, that is definitely a demon child. C tier.

The only flyer from this guy that I ever received. It’s very dense, and the postage covers some of it up. D tier.

Now we see the faces of the men responsible. We really only have the one photo of Foreman, don’t we? Safe to say that this one is a good bit more clearer on its messaging than the last one that came out against these two. B tier.

Again, we can’t afford Radical Kathy Dawes. Unfortunately it takes a bit too long to understand what those little food graphics are getting at when it comes to the inflation argument. That, and red-and-black is getting a little bit old. C tier.

Another quote from Julia Parker. Solid design, but again, there could be more info here. B tier.

Just because you put the logos next to the quotes doesn’t make this flier any less grating in its design. Not a fan of the teal and neon yellow combo. And again, the back looks completely different. C tier.

Having run out of ideas, the designers behind Prop 1 have resorted to minimalism, and I have to say, it works for me. B tier.

Nope. Don’t do puns in a campaign ad. F tier.

Another flier for those who like dogs. Simple and straightforward messaging, clear fonts, well placed. B tier.

Do we only have one photo of Dan Foreman? That aside, the issue of voting against blind children is a new one. C tier.

I get what you’re trying to do here with this flier, but there’s so much to read and process. Just put a big “Brandon Mitchell believes this!” label on the top and a thumbs down by each of these points. The quiz element is trying to be fun, but it’s far too much work this late in the campaign season. D tier

And last but not least, the only sheriff campaign flier we received, the week before Election Day. Props for being incredibly unique, but there is so much going on here. The brightest yellow. The most text. The border made from the names of the towns in the county. The fact that someone crossed out a section by hand on both sides, and then taped a separate sticker on the bottom. This is some intense and audacious marketing, which I can’t help but respect. That being said, F Tier.

Final tallies: 3 F, 10 D, 19 C, 11 B, 4 A, and 0 S. Of the 47 flyers received, there were 6 representing independent groups, 28 representing Democrat interests, and 13 representing Republican interests. Despite this being quite the stack of mail, I’m sure it’s not the only designs that got sent out. If you’ve got any unique campaign flyers collecting dust at home, we’d be happy to take a look at them.

Of course, the election’s over, so their rhetorical power is more or less spent. Frankly, I’m looking forward to seeing all this at the bottom of a recycling bin somewhere, and maybe I’ll throw myself in there as well. Catch you later y’all.