Political attack ads are nothing new. In fact, politicians use negative campaign ads to attack opponents records, conduct and personal values in ways that are often times misleading or just simply dishonest. Television provides a powerful medium to frame messages that will influence voters decisions.  

According to strategic researcher Frank Luntz the goal in any advertising effort is to activate “mental imagery” — the mental images that the messages create in consumer minds — visual analysis is far more effective than auditory processing. Furthermore, scientific studies completed in the past decade using focus group methodology have proven that “how it is said” and “what is heard” is more important than “what is said.” For example, focus groups have alerted media consultants to the importance of “auditory stimuli” (i.e.,back  ground music and sounds) to increase attention, recall, and persuasiveness.

On the other hand, focus groups have occasional difficulty measuring the “sleeper effect,” a gradual acceptance of a particularly hostile stimulus. Americans generally have a negative reaction to negative advertising. However, the palpability, and so the persuasiveness, of the information often increases as the viewer sees it multiple times.

In one of the more controversial political ads, known as the Daisy Ad, Lyndon Johnson used the threat of nuclear war to scare voters from voting for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential Election.

Goldwater delivered a speech a few days before the ad aired, in which he said “extremism in the pursuit of liberty, is no vice”.

This was spun by the pundits to make people believe he was hawkish. It is relevant to note that in 1964 America was fighting a controversial war in Vietnam, while we were engaged in the cold war against Russia. The threat of using nuclear weapons was a very real concern. The ad aired only once before being pulled by the Johnson campaign, but is credited with being widely influential and a contributing factor to the outcome of the election.

Since then there have been several copycat versions of the ad. For example, in 1984, Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign used ads against Reagan with a similar theme to the Daisy ad. The advertisement showed children and then footage of ballistic missiles and nuclear explosions, with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young singing ‘Teach Your Children Well’ as the soundtrack.

Other forms of attack ads are designed to assign blame. In the 1988 Dukakis vs Bush campaign the Republicans ran the famous Willie Horton ads in successful effort to cast Dukakis as being weak on crime.

Humor in political ads are more of a rarity, but score big points with me. In this ad, Christy Mihos is running for Governor of Massachusetts. The Big Dig is a 3.2 mile tunnel that when construction began in 1985 was estimated to cost $2.4 billion dollars. In 2006 with the project still not complete, the cost had soared to $14.5 billion. Very funny ad that gets right to the point without targeting anyone in particular.

This site  has a rich library of television political ads dating back to the 1950’s. If this topic is of interest to you I would suggest checking it out.

The next 8 months will be interesting. I am looking forward to seeing the new version of the swiftboat ads that will undoubtedly be used by both parties. Afterall, the end justifies the means in American politics.

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