Republican ad creative Vinny Minchillo has a well-articulated (I wanted to keep reading after the first few lines), well-timed (can you say, "approaching election"?)point to make on bad political attack ads.
When I tell people what I do, it takes them roughly 0.005 seconds to bring up the fact that they hate negative advertising. Guess what. I hate negative advertising, too. Even more than you do.Read the rest.
It's easy to see why anyone with taste would hate it. The traditional negative political ad starts off with a grainy picture of the opposing candidate in an unflattering pose while a baritone-voiced announcer speaks over gloomy music saying things like "What kind of man is Bob Smith?"
I hate those commercials, too. They're bad. And that's my point. People are fine with negative advertising; it's bad advertising they hate.
Focus group after focus group, for political and traditional clients alike, shows that people hate attack advertising. At least, what they perceive as attack advertising. They have no trouble with you pointing out differences, but don't attack the other side. People hate that.
Or do they?
There's an ad campaign running right now that has all the hallmarks of traditional attack advertising. One side portrays the other in an unflattering light and spends 30 seconds hammering away at the other side's flaws. It starts, "Hi, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC."
Simple, brilliant, effective. A negative ad done with taste.
And guess what? A little good taste works in political advertising, too.
The next time you complain about a negative attack ad, try to do better. Or tip Vinny off on some new business opportunities.
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