Issue Advocacy Ads are types of advertisements used in political campaigns. These advertisements originate from the power of soft money, which is used to fund numerous campaign efforts. Soft money can pay for different campaign expenses, get out the vote drives, or can be transferred to local and state parties. (Hershey P.234). Soft money is a prominent source for issue advocacy ads. Since political campaign ads cannot contain the words: “vote for”, “elect”, “support”, or “oppose”, they use events and issues in current history to show how poor or strong a politicians efforts have been. These ads Issue advocacy and do not express direct advocacy for a candidate. These ads gave corporations, unions, donors and PAC’s a perfectly legal way to spend money to support a candidate without attracting negative tension from FECA.

For example, during the United States presidential election, 2004

United States presidential election, 2004

The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...

 between the incumbent George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 and the challenger John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

, a Political action committee

Political action committee

In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

(PAC) named Progress of America, ran an advert on TV that showed the horrors of terrorism and stated that Osama Bin Laden and Al-qaeda want to kill American citizens. At the end they asked, "Would you trust Kerry against these killers?” “George Bush did not start this War, but he will end it." Technically these campaign ads did not use the restricted words; therefore, by FECA regulations, they were legal.