Attack ad
Encyclopedia
In political campaign
s, an attack ad is an advertisement whose message
is meant as a personal attack against another candidate or political party
. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning
or smear campaign
s, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media
.
An attack ad will generally unfairly criticize an opponent's political platform
, usually by pointing out its faults. Often the ad will simply make use of innuendo, based on opposition research
.
Televised attack ads rose to prominence in the United States
in the 1960s, and their use has gradually spread to other democratic countries since then, notably in Canada
(see below).
, was used by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater
in the 1964 presidential election. The ad opened with a young girl innocently picking petals from a daisy, while a man's voice (which may have had somewhat of a 'southwestern' accent similar to Goldwater's) performed a countdown to zero. It then zoomed in to an extreme close up to her eye, then cut to an image of a nuclear explosion
. The ad was shocking and disturbing, but also very effective. It convinced many that Goldwater's more aggressive approach to fighting the Cold War
could result in a nuclear conflict
.
Attack ads were used again by the campaign of George H.W. Bush against Democratic
candidate Michael Dukakis
in the 1988 presidential election. The two most famous were the "Willie Horton
" ad and "Tank Ride", an ad which ridiculed Dukakis with visuals of him looking foolish while riding in a tank. The Willie Horton Ad was especially notable for how controversial it was. The ad begins with a simple statement of Vice President Bush's support of the death penalty. Then it describes the case of Willie Horton who was a black man convicted of murder. The ad continues to explain that Gov. Dukakis's prison furlough program (unsupervised weekend passes from Massachusetts prison) released Horton 10 times and, on one of those furloughs, he kidnapped a young couple, stabbed the boy and "repeatedly" raped the girl. The ad ends with the comment, "Weekend prison passes. Dukakis on crime."
The Dukakis tank ride
ad from 1988 was a creative attack on Dukakis by the GOP
and used footage created by the Dukakis team. The inaccurate, yet devastating ad not only helped guarantee Dukakis’s defeat, it also created a lasting negative impression. The ad suggested that Bush was more supportive of military spending and weapons programs than Dukakis, using video which framed Dukakis as anything but a leader. The footage was pulled from the news media on a day Dukakis took the tank ride to counter the claim that he was weak on defense. A large over-sized helmet and a wide smile made the Democratic candidate look ill-suited for the role of Commander-in-Chief. If listened to closely, the sound of grinding gears is evident, suggesting that Dukakis could not run the tank smoothly. The sound was added to the footage; tanks do not have gears that grind. The gear sounds were of an 18-wheeler
.
The 2006 Mexican elections
, likewise, were plagued with attack ads. The first of them were ads against Andrés Manuel López Obrador
by the conservative PAN
, claiming his "populistic" proposals would drive Mexico to bankruptcy and crisis; the effect was notorious in a country that already endured almost 15 years of continuous economical crisis. On the other hand, the PRD
answered back with a round of attack ads against the current president Felipe Calderón
, claiming that he was also indirectly guilty for causing the 1995 crisis; since Calderón was huging himself as "the president of employment", the ads closed with the tagline "dirty hands, zero employments". After López Obrador alleged that Felipe Calderón was illegally patronizing his brother-in-law Hildebrando Zavala, the tagline was changed to "dirty hands, one employment for his brother-in-law". Attack ads don't have to be purely for campaign purposes: there was also a party ad by the PAN, aired shortly before abortion
was declared legal in the capital, in which a woman was sentenced to forceful abortion, in a scenario reminiscent of nowadays China
.
The 2008 United States Democratic presidential primaries featured an ad by then-Senator Hillary Clinton directed at her main rival at the time, then-Senator Barack Obama which aired days before the Texas primary. The ad began showing children asleep in bed while a ringing phone can be heard in the background with a voice over explaining that it’s 3 A.M., a phone is a ringing in the White House, and that “something’s happening in the world”. The voiceover then asked voters if they wanted someone on the other end of the line who “already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military” and is “tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world”. While Barack Obama was never mentioned by name, the implication was clear and the ad set off an immediate firestorm of discussion and controversy causing even Obama himself to respond and describe it as an ad that “play[ed] on people’s fears” and predicted that it would not work. Later in the campaign, after Barack Obama had become the Democratic nominee for president, Republican nominee John McCain
echoed a similar sentiment. In a controversial ad called "Celebrity," McCain's campaign asked: "[Barack Obama] is the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead?" The ad juxtaposed Obama supporters with photos of Britney Spears
and Paris Hilton
.
Recently, attack ads have spread online as political candidates publish their ads on YouTube. Carly Fiorina
, a Republican candidate from California, released a video on YouTube depicting former Republican opponent Tom Campbell, as a “FCINO” or “Fiscal Conservative In Name Only.”
The effectiveness of attack ads has been debated by political pundits for years. Many political analysts are of the opinion that attack ads have the potential to sway voters. Professor Scott Hawkins “suggests that even a mention in the media that a candidate or party is planning to run negative advertisements can be beneficial, since it plants seeds of doubt in the voter's mind, especially early in the campaign when voters tend to be less involved. If the reported claims turn up in advertisements later in the campaign, they already seem familiar to the voter”
Attack ads can not only mobilize a candidates’ support base but also appeal to those who may not necessarily be politically active but happened to be watching television when the ad came on and were struck by the claims it made without knowing if they were true or not. The mere implication of a candidate’s name with a scandal can have long lasting and significant effects.
Some believe that attack ads are useful in shaping public opinion
. This may be the result of the appeal to emotion
which attack ads often represent. However, an attack ad may fail in its intended purpose and backfire against the group which used it. If an ad is seen as going too far or being too personal the voters may turn against the party that put out the ad. One example of an attack ad backfiring was during the 1993 federal election
in Canada
when the Progressive Conservative Party
attacked Liberal Party
leader Jean Chrétien
by appearing to many to implicitly mock his Bell's Palsy partial facial paralysis
. Outrage followed, and the PC Party was hurt badly in the polls. Similar backlash happened to the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election for creating an attack ad that suggested that Conservative leader Stephen Harper would use armed Canadian soldiers to police major cities. The ad was never aired. Its effect was to diminish the believability of the Party's other attack ads. A leaked copy that was broadcast on the news offended many Canadians particularly the military, some of who were fighting in Afghanistan
at the time. (See also 2006 Harper attack ads
.)
points out that” issue ads” run by front groups use deceptive names to hide their true sponsors-such as the United Seniors Association (USA), which spent $17 million on ads during the 2000 Presidential Campaign with no hint that the USA was backed by the pharmaceutical industry. The problem with front ads is that they cannot be controlled by the candidates which insulates the candidates from criticism even though they may support the content of the ad.
In the United States, researchers have consistently found that negative advertising has positive effects. According to Finkel and Greer (1998), negative advertising “is likely to stimulate voters by increasing the degree to which they care about the election’s outcome or by increasing ties to their party’s nominee.” This is an important feature of negative campaign advertising because it can solidify a candidate's support going into an election. The finding was repeated by Ken Goldstein and Paul Freedman (2002), who found that negative campaign ads raise interest in the election as well as raise the perceived importance of the election, which increases voter turnout. Negative advertising, then, can be very beneficial to a candidate during a campaign to not only win votes but also get out the vote.
Negative advertising can also be used to demobilize voters. Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar (1995) found that negative campaign advertising appeals only to partisans. They go on to say that negative advertising actually alienates independents and demobilizes them as voters, which causes elections to be fought among the partisan extremes.
This makes sense since it removes the independents as a voting bloc to be concerned about and allows the candidates to stick to the party line.
Political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
s, an attack ad is an advertisement whose message
Message
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...
is meant as a personal attack against another candidate or political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning
Negative campaigning
Negative campaigning, also known more colloquially as "mudslinging", is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies...
or smear campaign
Smear campaign
A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a metaphor for activity that can harm an individual or group's reputation by conflation with a stigmatized group...
s, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
.
An attack ad will generally unfairly criticize an opponent's political platform
Party platform
A party platform, or platform sometimes also referred to as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples' candidates voted into political office or...
, usually by pointing out its faults. Often the ad will simply make use of innuendo, based on opposition research
Opposition research
Opposition research is:# The term used to classify and describe efforts of supporters or paid consultants of a political candidate to legally investigate the biographical, legal or criminal, medical, educational, financial, public and private administrative and or voting records of the opposing...
.
Televised attack ads rose to prominence in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the 1960s, and their use has gradually spread to other democratic countries since then, notably in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(see below).
Examples
One of the earliest and most famous television attack ads, known as Daisy GirlDaisy (television commercial)
"Daisy," sometimes known as "Daisy Girl" or "Peace, Little Girl," was a controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign...
, was used by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
in the 1964 presidential election. The ad opened with a young girl innocently picking petals from a daisy, while a man's voice (which may have had somewhat of a 'southwestern' accent similar to Goldwater's) performed a countdown to zero. It then zoomed in to an extreme close up to her eye, then cut to an image of a nuclear explosion
Nuclear explosion
A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device...
. The ad was shocking and disturbing, but also very effective. It convinced many that Goldwater's more aggressive approach to fighting the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
could result in a nuclear conflict
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
.
Attack ads were used again by the campaign of George H.W. Bush against Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidate Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
in the 1988 presidential election. The two most famous were the "Willie Horton
Willie Horton
William R. "Willie" Horton is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program...
" ad and "Tank Ride", an ad which ridiculed Dukakis with visuals of him looking foolish while riding in a tank. The Willie Horton Ad was especially notable for how controversial it was. The ad begins with a simple statement of Vice President Bush's support of the death penalty. Then it describes the case of Willie Horton who was a black man convicted of murder. The ad continues to explain that Gov. Dukakis's prison furlough program (unsupervised weekend passes from Massachusetts prison) released Horton 10 times and, on one of those furloughs, he kidnapped a young couple, stabbed the boy and "repeatedly" raped the girl. The ad ends with the comment, "Weekend prison passes. Dukakis on crime."
The Dukakis tank ride
ad from 1988 was a creative attack on Dukakis by the GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and used footage created by the Dukakis team. The inaccurate, yet devastating ad not only helped guarantee Dukakis’s defeat, it also created a lasting negative impression. The ad suggested that Bush was more supportive of military spending and weapons programs than Dukakis, using video which framed Dukakis as anything but a leader. The footage was pulled from the news media on a day Dukakis took the tank ride to counter the claim that he was weak on defense. A large over-sized helmet and a wide smile made the Democratic candidate look ill-suited for the role of Commander-in-Chief. If listened to closely, the sound of grinding gears is evident, suggesting that Dukakis could not run the tank smoothly. The sound was added to the footage; tanks do not have gears that grind. The gear sounds were of an 18-wheeler
Semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semi, tractor-trailer, or articulated truck or articulated lorry, is an articulated vehicle consisting of a towing engine , and a semi-trailer A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semi, tractor-trailer, or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) articulated truck...
.
The 2006 Mexican elections
Mexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...
, likewise, were plagued with attack ads. The first of them were ads against Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
by the conservative PAN
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
, claiming his "populistic" proposals would drive Mexico to bankruptcy and crisis; the effect was notorious in a country that already endured almost 15 years of continuous economical crisis. On the other hand, the PRD
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
answered back with a round of attack ads against the current president Felipe Calderón
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
, claiming that he was also indirectly guilty for causing the 1995 crisis; since Calderón was huging himself as "the president of employment", the ads closed with the tagline "dirty hands, zero employments". After López Obrador alleged that Felipe Calderón was illegally patronizing his brother-in-law Hildebrando Zavala, the tagline was changed to "dirty hands, one employment for his brother-in-law". Attack ads don't have to be purely for campaign purposes: there was also a party ad by the PAN, aired shortly before abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
was declared legal in the capital, in which a woman was sentenced to forceful abortion, in a scenario reminiscent of nowadays China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The 2008 United States Democratic presidential primaries featured an ad by then-Senator Hillary Clinton directed at her main rival at the time, then-Senator Barack Obama which aired days before the Texas primary. The ad began showing children asleep in bed while a ringing phone can be heard in the background with a voice over explaining that it’s 3 A.M., a phone is a ringing in the White House, and that “something’s happening in the world”. The voiceover then asked voters if they wanted someone on the other end of the line who “already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military” and is “tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world”. While Barack Obama was never mentioned by name, the implication was clear and the ad set off an immediate firestorm of discussion and controversy causing even Obama himself to respond and describe it as an ad that “play[ed] on people’s fears” and predicted that it would not work. Later in the campaign, after Barack Obama had become the Democratic nominee for president, Republican nominee John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
echoed a similar sentiment. In a controversial ad called "Celebrity," McCain's campaign asked: "[Barack Obama] is the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead?" The ad juxtaposed Obama supporters with photos of Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
.
Recently, attack ads have spread online as political candidates publish their ads on YouTube. Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina is an American business executive and a former Republican candidate for the United States Senate representing California. Fiorina served as chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 and previously was an executive at AT&T and its equipment and technology spinoff,...
, a Republican candidate from California, released a video on YouTube depicting former Republican opponent Tom Campbell, as a “FCINO” or “Fiscal Conservative In Name Only.”
Effectiveness
According to Lipsitz, Trost, Grossmann, & Sides , many voters claim to dislike negative campaigning on principle and want candidates to present policy proposals in a civilized manner. The voting public see attack ads as an element of smear campaigning. However, the continued use of these types of ads indicates that political operatives have found them to be useful. According to Lau and Rovner social psychologists feel that negative information has a tendency “to be more influential than equally extreme or equally likely positive information.” Citizens may want to hear the good qualities of the candidates but they tend to remember more about the less desirable ones when presented with them. Research indicates that voters are open to candidates attacking each other as long as it’s on issues that they deem to be “appropriate.” For example, survey of Virginia Voters, 80.7% of voters feel it is fair for a candidate to criticize an opponent for “talking one way and voting another” but only 7.7% feel it is fair for a candidate to attack an opponent for the “behavior of his/her family members.”The effectiveness of attack ads has been debated by political pundits for years. Many political analysts are of the opinion that attack ads have the potential to sway voters. Professor Scott Hawkins “suggests that even a mention in the media that a candidate or party is planning to run negative advertisements can be beneficial, since it plants seeds of doubt in the voter's mind, especially early in the campaign when voters tend to be less involved. If the reported claims turn up in advertisements later in the campaign, they already seem familiar to the voter”
Attack ads can not only mobilize a candidates’ support base but also appeal to those who may not necessarily be politically active but happened to be watching television when the ad came on and were struck by the claims it made without knowing if they were true or not. The mere implication of a candidate’s name with a scandal can have long lasting and significant effects.
Some believe that attack ads are useful in shaping public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
. This may be the result of the appeal to emotion
Appeal to emotion
Appeal to emotion is a potential fallacy which uses the manipulation of the recipient's emotions, rather than valid logic, to win an argument. The appeal to emotion fallacy uses emotions as the basis of an argument's position without factual evidence that logically supports the major ideas endorsed...
which attack ads often represent. However, an attack ad may fail in its intended purpose and backfire against the group which used it. If an ad is seen as going too far or being too personal the voters may turn against the party that put out the ad. One example of an attack ad backfiring was during the 1993 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
when the Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
attacked Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
leader Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
by appearing to many to implicitly mock his Bell's Palsy partial facial paralysis
1993 Chrétien attack ad
During the 1993 Canadian federal election, the Progressive Conservative Party produced a televised attack ad against Jean Chrétien, the Liberal leader. The ad was perceived by many as a focus on Chrétien's facial deformity, caused by Bell's palsy...
. Outrage followed, and the PC Party was hurt badly in the polls. Similar backlash happened to the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election for creating an attack ad that suggested that Conservative leader Stephen Harper would use armed Canadian soldiers to police major cities. The ad was never aired. Its effect was to diminish the believability of the Party's other attack ads. A leaked copy that was broadcast on the news offended many Canadians particularly the military, some of who were fighting in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
at the time. (See also 2006 Harper attack ads
2006 Liberal Party of Canada election ads
In the 2006 federal election in Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada used attack ads against Conservative Party of Canada leader Stephen Harper. The Liberals, trailing in polls during the last weeks, resorted to strong and often questionable negative ads directed towards the Conservative party, by...
.)
Front groups
Campaigns often establish or support front groups to run attack ads to deflect the criticism that comes from running them. A front group is an organization with political overtones that claims to represent one motivation or agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is cloaked in secrecy or rarely mentioned. For example, Rick Berman’s, Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) claims that its intention is to defend the rights of consumers to choose to eat, drink and smoke as they please. In reality, CCF is a front group for the tobacco, restaurant and alcoholic beverage industries, which provide all or most of its funding. Leonard SteinhornLeonard Steinhorn
Leonard Steinhorn is an American author, specialist in American politics and culture, and professor of communication at American University....
points out that” issue ads” run by front groups use deceptive names to hide their true sponsors-such as the United Seniors Association (USA), which spent $17 million on ads during the 2000 Presidential Campaign with no hint that the USA was backed by the pharmaceutical industry. The problem with front ads is that they cannot be controlled by the candidates which insulates the candidates from criticism even though they may support the content of the ad.
Other effects of attack ads
As research suggests, attack ads in political campaigns are mainly effective because they contribute to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely have negative impacts. Voters often look to negative information to find reasons for supporting one candidate over another. However, there have been times when attack ads become too controversial in society and backfire against a candidate . For example, in 2006 Republican challenger Paul Nelson took his race against five-term U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) using one of the most controversial attack ads of the decade. His ad spun that, “Ron Kind has no trouble spending your money, he’d just rather spend it on sex,” and, “instead of spending money on cancer research, Ron Kind voted to spend your money to study the sex lives of Vietnamese prostitutes.” Nelson’s challenge fell short, as Ron Kind was reelected, while the attack’s outrageous presentation provoked an uproar from Republicans and Democrats. According to Fridkin and Kenny, the negative coefficient for mudslinging suggest that challengers lose almost 3 points on the feeling thermometer when a candidate engages in mudslinging. The study also shows that the influence of negativity is less powerful for challengers than for incumbents.In the United States, researchers have consistently found that negative advertising has positive effects. According to Finkel and Greer (1998), negative advertising “is likely to stimulate voters by increasing the degree to which they care about the election’s outcome or by increasing ties to their party’s nominee.” This is an important feature of negative campaign advertising because it can solidify a candidate's support going into an election. The finding was repeated by Ken Goldstein and Paul Freedman (2002), who found that negative campaign ads raise interest in the election as well as raise the perceived importance of the election, which increases voter turnout. Negative advertising, then, can be very beneficial to a candidate during a campaign to not only win votes but also get out the vote.
Negative advertising can also be used to demobilize voters. Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar (1995) found that negative campaign advertising appeals only to partisans. They go on to say that negative advertising actually alienates independents and demobilizes them as voters, which causes elections to be fought among the partisan extremes.
This makes sense since it removes the independents as a voting bloc to be concerned about and allows the candidates to stick to the party line.