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Some campaigns would rather air dirty laundry than make their case,
The Lost Art Of Good Opposition Research
Millennials were supposed to be a gold mine for ingenious political attack ads just waiting to be made.
They were the first generation to grow up documenting their lives online, leaving behind years of posts, tweets and candid videos chock-full of questionable hot takes. And they did it all before anyone fully understood the consequences of putting their entire lives on the internet.
So by the time they started running for office, campaigns would have more material than ever to sift through, right? Wrong.
Somehow, all that information seems to have made political operatives lazier.
Campaigns have decided embarrassing an opponent is easier than making a convincing case against them — and we’re worse off for it.
The playbook is practically identical from state to state and district to district: Find something that makes voters squirm and hope the discomfort does the persuading. What campaigns increasingly skip is the harder part — explaining why any of the personal jabs matter to the job their opponents are asking voters to let them do.
Before digging into the decline of the political attack ad, let’s revisit one of the greats: Mitch McConnell’s bloodhound ad.