Attack ad
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In political campaigns, an attack ad is an advertisement whose message is meant as an attack against another candidate or political party. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning or smear campaigns, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media.
An attack ad will generally criticize an opponent's political platform, usually by pointing out its faults and contrasting them against its own platform. Attack ads originated in the United States in the 1960s, and their use has gradually spread to other democratic countries since then, notably in Canada (see below).
Examples
One of the earliest and most famous television attack ads, known as Daisy Girl, was used by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater. The ad opened with a young girl innocently strolling through a field and gathering flowers. 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 with great success by the campaign of George H.W. Bush against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign. The two most famous were the "Willie Horton" ad, which displayed grainy visuals of a black rapist and murderer while an unseen announcer blamed Dukakis for letting him free to rape again, and an ad which ridiculed Dukakis with visuals of him looking foolish while riding in a tank.
Effectiveness
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 will 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 facial deformity. 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 running an attack ad that suggested that Conservative leader Stephen Harper would use Canadian soldiers to brutalize Canadian citizens who resided in cities, and impose some kind of martial law. The ad was quickly pulled after only a few days, but it's effect was to diminish the believability of the Party's other attack ads. It offended many Canadians particulary the military, some of who were fighting in Afghanistan at the time. (See also 2006 Harper attack ads.)
Campaigns often establish or support front groups to run attack ads to deflect the criticism that comes from running them.