Political Attack Ads
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Posted by Carroll Trosclair Aug 28, 2008 |
Harsh negative ads continue to dominate American politics despite all the polls showing voter dislike for them and all the candidate promises to conduct positive campaigns. Several reasons account for the continued use of the attack commercials:
- Campaign strategists say negative commercials are effective and they convince candidates that the attacks are essential to winning.
- The ads double as newsmakers, generating more media coverage than do glowing videos of the candidate. News people find heavy doses of self praise boring and they often start digging to see if the information is accurate.
- Voters tend to focus on personalities rather than issues.
- With today’s technology, candidates can use attack ads to respond almost immediately to surprise campaign twists and turns.
- Politicians, or at least their campaigners, may enjoy making negative commercials. Attack ads fit into the American love for competition.
Campaign Strategists Timing Attacks Carefully
Campaign strategists are getting more sophisticated in using negative commercials, particularly the timing of them. In the past they often used attack commercials as 11th hour attacks, too late for the opposition to respond.
Candidates often try to blame the opposition for negative campaigning, insisting that they are just responding in self defense. The usual approach is to deny any personal attack and to say the commercial is simply addressing pertinent issues.
However, in a 2008 U.S. Senate campaign, the incumbent openly struck first and early. Political columnist John Maginnis said the strategy was to force the challenger to "spend money defending himself instead of burnishing his image first." This can also test or strain a newcomer’s war chest early in the campaign.
As harsh, mean and half true as most attack commercials are, they are not as depressing as ugly, hard-to-track-down rumor campaigns. At least a candidate can see and respond to a television commercial.
References: John Maginnis, The Times-Picayune, August 27, 2008