Question

In what ways can a candidate gain visibility and generate mass appeal ?

Answer 1

There are a lot of ways which you have probably seen on television or heard about from parents and friends.

A candidate can do meet-and-greets where they show up in a location and make speeches or just do "ordinary" things like wash cars or buy pizzas to meet who they want to vote for them. Or they can spend buckets of money and on ads online or on television talking up their positions (or slinging mud at their opponents). They can debate each other, as the President and the challenger did along with their Vice Presidential running mates, on national television.

In the end, anything that gets the word out for who they are -- television, the internet (Youtube), newspapers, magazine interviews, action groups, volunteerism -- is completely up for grabs.