Why do people pay attention to campaign ads?

[HuckleB]

It's not hard to figure out that they are not a good way to figure out who one thinks is best for office.

Yet, most of us seem to pay an inordinate amount of attention to them?

I mean, most parents spend plenty of time helping their kids question ads for various products, And pointing out the real reason for those ads makes them less than helpful in choosing a good product.

Hmm.

[virtualobserver]

1. they don't.....unless they are effective

[Igel]

8. Well, *that's* not circular, is it? n/t

[PoliticAverse]

2. Because most people don't spend enough time researching political topics to neutralize

the effect of advertising?

[2naSalit]

3. It's in the

subliminal messaging... programs watchers to continue watching and to not reach for the clicker to change the channel or turn the damned thing OFF.

[Archae]

4. The nastier the better, quite honestly.

People love to see others fight.

And in comparison, positive campaign ads are usually boring.

[Igel]

9. Negative ads are also more useful.

No politician is going to raise problem issues or flaws in their background. It's all happiness and joy, goodness and light. They are great, they are perfect, they are heroes. Their honeyed tongues drip wisdom and enlightenment and are at the very least demi-gods deserving of praise and adoration.

They are as their worshipers and admirers want them to be, and serve to confirm their godhood to their followers.

Negative ads contain more information, they move the debate, they force engagement and raise concerns that the sheep following their good shepherd would never see and really don't want to see. The true believers tune them out, the farce is strong with them and their perceptual filters are turned up to 11 (out of 10).

The danger is that unfounded negative ads, basically just name calling, don't do much, and are intended just to whip up anger among the base instead of win converts. A lot of the extremist views we've seen in this campaign fall in this campaign, whipping up anger and resentment against the enemy tribe(s) and creating a deepened sense of grievance that will only be resolved with great difficulty (or generational turnover).

The other problem is that for many, negative ads are always just name calling, but now we're back to the ramped up perceptual filter problem that's anathema to any critical thinking faculty.

[logosoco]

5. I saw a few last night...

the first ones I have seen this season because I don't watch TV anymore. The ads seemed bland and just...words. One of them was pro Cruz (Crud) and it just seemed down right scary. He said he would get rid of the IRS. I guess uninformed people hear that and think it sounds good, because they don't like paying taxes. But that is just stupid. ( I could rant more here but I am sure the people at DU get it!!)

In this day and age, with everyone walking around with computers in their pockets, there really is no excuse not to do a little research and get informed.

[hunter]

6. I don't know. I never see them.

No television, and the political crap I find in my mailbox goes directly into the recycling bin.

We U.S. Americans are well trained to eat whatever shit The Machine serves us.

Here, have a Coke, it's full of sugar grown by slaves, or alternatively, high fructose corn syrup which is another product of environmentally and socially destructive monoculture. Yet you can buy it almost anywhere on the planet.

Just the thing to wash down those factory farm chicken nuggets.

Donald Trump is on TV? Of course he is. He's a TV personality. He helps TV sell advertising, only losers buy it.

[HuckleB]

7. Same here, which probably makes me more puzzled by how much...

... others pay attention to them. There was a big piece on ads on NPR this morning, though I turned the channel to the local jazz station. I just can't listen to that stuff at all.