By R. Brownell
10. The “naked” truth
The “Naked Truth” was made by Kelly Kultala, former Kansas State Senator who ran for US House during the 2014 election. While the ad did poke fun at her incumbent opponent, the strange nature of the commercial to use naked people as a form of humor to get people to pay attention to her message struck many Americans as too weird to take seriously.
9. Wimp in the White House
Coming out of the tense days of the Cold War, Americans were not willing to step down even by an inch the levels of military preparedness which they felt kept the country safe.
In order to discredit his opponent as a weak on defense, Vice President George H.W Bush, running for president after two terms under Reagan, took an opportunity to highlight his opponent as not just someone who would reduce the strong armed defense of the country, but someone who would leave the nation vulnerable to any and all forms of attack.
8. Sam says “wake up!”
Created by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, this commercial took advantage of Obama’s popularity in Hollywood to draft foul-mouthed Samuel L. Jackson to attack his 2012, opponent Mitt Romney. The ad features Jackson warning a family of the calamity that would occur if they did not vote for the incumbent president.
7. Mitt Romney killed a person?
In an early effort to attack GOP candidate Mitt Romney, a DNC backed super Pac released an ad which featured an elderly widower, who goes on to blame Romney’s days at Bain Capital as the cause of his wife’s loss of healthcare, resulting in her untimely death. The controversial video was later deemed false by further investigation, but effectively imprinted a negative image of Romney being too wealthy to understand the middle class.
6. Obama/Carter 2012
In an effort to target Obama’s economic policies made during his first term as POTUS, this ad focused on comparing the president to one of the most unpopular presidents in history-Jimmy Carter. T
he commercial took sound bites of the two men making claims about improving job reports, despite showing on the side and in the backgrounds, evidence of the real job and economic numbers which ran contrary to both presidents statements. This commercial gave pundits and the Romney campaign a new talking point during the 2012 election, asking whether or not Obama was the new Carter of the 21st century, and if history would repeat itself by showing another first-term president getting evicted from the White House.
5. Rick Perry: not afraid to discriminate
Using the conservative “war on religion” cliché, Texas Governor Rick Perry took things a little two far in his commercial titled “Strong” during his 2012 presidential campaign, in which he stated part of the problems facing the country were gay soldiers actively serving in the military.
4. The socialist survivor
One of the most underrated ads of the 2012 campaign, this commercial made by self made billionaire Thomas Peterffy, who escaped socialist Hungary in the 1950’s to come live the American dream, created a short, but incredibly powerful video in which he showed the fallacy of socialism and the virtues of capitalism, all without saying “Obama” once.
3. McCain has how many houses
In an attempt to label Senator John McCain as senile, then Senator Obama during the 2008 election launched a series of commercials with the question “how many houses does he own?” This attack strategy painted a picture of McCain as too old, and to privileged to ever be president during a time of recession.
2. Zombie Pelosi
Though his campaign failed, his commercial became a national overnight hit in 2010. Republican John Dennis attempted to woo liberal California by creating the “Night of the Living Pelosi” ad, where she attempts to sacrifice a lamb in a crowd of zombies, only to be stopped by the hero, John Dennis.
1. Ron Paul vs China
In possibly one of the most theatrical political ads ever created, the Ron Paul 2012 campaign tried to paint a picture of the future, a future where debt, inflation, and uncontrollable spending give China economic control of the United States.
Bonus:
Think hateful political attack ads are a relatively recent phenomenon? Check out these attacks from the founding fathers on one another.
