Interest Advocacy
Interest advocacy is act of making generalized communication regarding a public issue or problem without advocating voters to take a specific action at the election booth.
Identification of a pure "issue only ads" made by interest advocacy groups is difficult. Groups that sponsored messages needed to make it clear to a voter with reasonable intelligence, that the voter should cast their ballot in a manner the group wanted.
Keeping an advertisement issue only was important to groups like 501(c)(3) non-profits. Groups like this were subject to limits, or absolute prohibitions, on engaging in political activities. In 2006, the US Internal Revenue Service issued a fact sheet that stated groups could not endorse, make public statements for, contribute to, or distribute statements prepared by others, since it would be "political intervention". However, at the same time, organizations still could participate in non-partisan voter education efforts, including registration and get-out-the-vote drives and issue advocacy.
Read more about this topic: Issue Advocacy Ads
Famous quotes containing the word interest:
“A man’s interest in the world is only the overflow from his interest in himself. When you are a child your vessel is not yet full; so you care for nothing but your own affairs. When you grow up, your vessel overflows; and you are a politician, a philosopher, or an explorer and adventurer. In old age the vessel dries up: there is no overflow: you are a child again.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)