Well, it didn’t affect my vote, since I don’t live in Maryland, but the “It’s not even his dog!” ad was a genuine chukle.
Tris
Not in the slightest.
I’ve got Tivo, so I didn’t see a single TV ad.
I’ve got XM radio and CDs in my truck, and Pandora on my computer at work, so I didn’t hear a single radio ad.
I only drive a mile or so to work, and it gets dark really early now, so I never saw any billboards.
I’ve only got a cell phone, so I didn’t get a single bit of political phone-spam.
I’m running ad-block on Firefox, so I never saw any online banners.
Politicians, fear me! I am immune to your petty mind control tricks!
They didn’t, but if I was paying more (or maybe less) attention, they might have. I don’t watch TV, but I’ve been getting piles of 8 1/2 x 11 glossy “ads” in the mail the last couple of weeks.
The funny thing is, while they’re ostensibly attack ads, they almost seem to backfire. They go like this:
“If you vote for Democratic candidate Ron Klein, he’ll waste all your money, and probably kick kittens, too. So don’t vote for Ron Klein. He’s evil. Vote for our candidate, he’s way better than Ron Klein.”
So at a quick glance (which is all they get before hitting the trash can), all I see is the opponent’s name, not the name of the candidate that actually paid for the ad. Seems kinda backwards to me.
None of them affected my vote.
I did greatly enjoy Christy Mihos’s ads of various people in front of the State House cramming their heads up their rear ends. I was suprised to see such a … blatant … opinion, even from someone like Mihos.
Just one, and it affected me negatively. The Republican candidate for Attorney General, Betty Montgomery, ran a series of ads blasting her opponent for having represented accused child molesters in his capacity as a trial attorney. The implication, I suppose, is that the guy supported child molesting, or hell, maybe was a child molester himself!
These ads actually prompted the Columbus Bar Association to publicly decry them. They correctly pointed out that in our justice system, everyone is entitled to a fair trial, and that can’t happen if everyone refuses to defend accused child molesters – who are, after all, only ACCUSED anyway. Not convicted.
Montgomery’s apparent total lack of understanding of the judicial process made me think she was probably a poor candidate for the A.G. position.
And how about applying that to all the other (non-political) ads the stations run. And the infomercials!
The stations would be too busy fact-checking ads to ever broadcast programs. And so few ads would pass this test that the station would soon be out of business.
Just face the fact that advertising is basically nothing but paid lies. And treat it that way. If it really bothers you, get TIVO, or get fast with the mute button.
To tell the truth, I’m extremely glad we decided in favor of broadband instead of cable TV–we haven’t had cable since the beginning of summer and I have to say that the lack of exposure to crappy negative campaign advertising was totally refreshing. I got out my voter pamphlet and ballot, read all the verbiage and arguments for and against, did some additional research online, marked my ballot and dropped it off. We then hooked up an antenna to get the broadcast stations and checked the election coverage until about ten or so, went to bed, and woke up feeling fresh as a daisy and remarkably cheerful about the results.
This is a regimen I recommend heartily to all the next time the creepy bastards are having their way with us–it’s remarkable how much better you’ll feel about your decisions when they’re based solely on research and fact rather than hysteria, finger pointing, media manipulation, outright lies and name calling. I also like the fact that they spent so much money but in my case it did absolutely nothing for them–warms my cockles, it does…
They discouraged me from voting for either of the jackasses launching the attack ads at each other. It reminded me of those fake ads they run on Saturday Night Live.
Only one set of ads affected my vote. Sen. Dick Lugar, a shoo-in who didn’t even have a Democratic opponent, ran quite a few ads anyway. He had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and he was campaigning for that. I had planned to not vote for anyone for that office, but I ended up voting for the Libertarian candidate, who eventually got 12% of the vote. That may have been the most any Libertarian candidate has ever gotten in Indiana.