Research by the Wesleyan Media Project at Wesleyan University claims negativity in campaign ads has been trending upward for years, and that September political ads were more negative than the same month in the 2012 presidential election.
Advertising professor Kjerstin Thorson said negative advertising as a whole is an effective tactic.
“We don’t like it, it makes people kind of cynical about elections, but it does mobilize people to turn out because it sends a signal that we should be worried about the election or that it might be close,” Thorson said.
But this phenomenon might be more a matter of the heart.
Thorson said political advertising doesn’t typically aim to change anyone’s mind, rather opting to reinforce and mobilize those already supporting a given candidate or independents who lean in their direction.
Thorson said spending toward search-based online advertising has been going up every election, because these ads can target specific demographics and interests and are much more likely to reach the desired audience than a TV ad broadcast to everyone.
But this isn’t without its downsides.
Thorson said online ads are harder to track and measure, as only certain people can see them.
This campaign has seen a split in campaign advertising techniques.
“One thing that’s odd about this election is that (Democratic nominee) Hillary Clinton has been doing a lot of television advertising and (Republican nominee) Donald Trump a lot less,” Thorson said. “He’s been doing most of his outreach through public attention, through social media, things like that.”
This unique approach might prove effective in drawing the eyes of younger voters.
Advertising senior Elle Bennett said Trump’s social media is successful because he’s focused more on appearance than policy and the younger generation provides publicity for him because they find him amusing.
When it comes to negative advertising, Bennett said she thinks candidates are getting away with unethical or misleading statements more.
“I think candidates are being more and more greedy and putting information out there that’s not really as ethical as political advertising used to be,” Bennett said. “They can easily misinform an audience about a certain thing that someone did, (take) one little nitpicky thing and really put it out there.”
While she agrees that negative advertising is effective, Bennett said taking a positive angle with political advertising reflects better on the candidate.
“I think when they put positive messages out there, even if it’s about another candidate, it kind of shows they’re trying to educate the population opposed to putting an unethical message out there,” Bennett said.
