Our love-hate affair with political attack ads

Are you fed up already with the nasty attack ads that Stephen Harper unleashed this week against Justin Trudeau just hours after he won the Liberal party leadership?

If so, then you aren’t alone, judging by the widespread reaction on Facebook, Twitter and radio hotline shows.

In fact, most Canadians tell pollsters they despise political attack ads, which Harper deployed so successfully in the past against former Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff.

But if voters hate attack ads, why do politicians love them so much?

The answer is simple: Because they work!

One of the main reasons is that Canadians — despite all their complaining — actually have a love-hate affair with attack ads.

Voters moan about how the ads are filled with unfair lies and distortions and ultimately damage democracy by contributing to low voter turnouts. At the same time, though, voters are entertained, hooked and fascinated by the ads, which ignite passion and debate in a way few political speeches or pronouncements ever do.

Indeed, campaign-style attack ads are often the only connection voters have with politics in non-election years.

In the new Trudeau attack ads, the Harper team portrays the new Liberal leader as too inexperienced, foolish and naive to be prime minister, a guy “in way over his head.”

While it’s true all parties use attack ads, the Tories under Harper have taken the strategy to new levels. They’ve studied U.S. campaign ads closely, including what makes them effective, when to run them and how often, how to respond to them and what topics to avoid.

The dirty little secret about attack ads is they have an unconscious impact on voters’ perceptions of candidates, even on voters who indicate they strongly hate the ads.

In a study of the 2008 Florida presidential primary, researchers tested voters’ conscious and unconscious responses to various negative ads both by Republican and Democratic candidates.

Most respondents said they despised the ads and suggested they would backfire on the candidates.

But the researchers found the ads were highly effective because they “stuck,” even with voters who consciously said they weren’t affected by the ads, but who unconsciously associated words in the ads such as “weak” with the politicians targeted by the ads.

That’s important because voters remember negative images and words much better than positive ones.

“There’s nothing like a sinister portrayal of a greedy, self-centred villain, replete with grainy images and menacing music, to stir up our unconscious minds,” Drew Westen, a professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta who co-led the project, wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

Another study by the University of Miami found attack ads are most effective when shown in moderation. But the survey found an ad that is shown too often, such as three times in a 30-minute TV program, can have a backlash effect on the candidate who authorized it.

Other studies have suggested negative ads can backfire if they are deemed “too dirty” and that attack ads unleashed during the heat of an actual campaign can smell of desperation by the sponsoring candidate, which is one reason Harper is attacking Trudeau early.

Jaime Watt, the key campaign strategist for former Ontario premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, agrees negative ads can be remarkably persuasive when used smartly. This is particularly true when they contrast where candidates stand on issues and point out the choices between them.

But Watt said in an interview that strategists are always reluctant to deploy such ads because they carry huge risk and can drive up a sponsoring candidate’s own negatives.

David Herle, a top strategist for former prime minister Paul Martin, also believes negative ads can be very effective, especially when an opponent fails to respond. “An allegation unrebutted is an allegation that has landed with voters,” Herle said.

Should Trudeau counterattack?

Both Watt and Herle say yes. Watt says “it’s ridiculous” for a politician to ignore an attack. Herle says Trudeau would be wise to assume the Tory ads will work against him if he doesn’t respond.

For his part, Trudeau says he will continue spreading his “positive message,” adding voters are fed up with the Tories’ “bullying, negativism and cynicism.”

Voters may be fed up, but negative ads will keep appearing, ensuring Canadians’ love-hate affair with them will continue to endure.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author:  Bob Hepburn