Positive thoughts about negative ads

Posted by cwaddell under Election 2008, Election 2008 Student articles

Susan Krashinsky

Conventional wisdom has it that Canadians have a low tolerance for negative campaign tactics. While negative ad campaigns are commonplace for our neighbours to the south, it’s often said Canadians are quicker to cry foul at such attacks.

That may be true, said Scott Reid, but don’t confuse what people claim to dislike, with effective advertising. Reid is a former communications director for Paul Martin.

“Call them, negative, call them whatever you wish,” he said. “Choosing to advertise about the other people can have a positive effect on your electoral prospects. No question. Here in Canada; not just the United States.”

Reid said  the rhetoric about attack ads can be distracting. “Of course some ads are manifestly negative and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise,” he said. “Really, the question is, are you advertising about yourself, or are you advertising about the other guy?”

Focusing on “the other guy” can be the best policy. Midway through the 2004 campaign, when the Liberals began falling apart, they shifted their focus to criticising Harper. Liberal numbers solidified, and even began turning around.

“When they advertised about themselves, they were unpersuasive to Canadians,” Reid said. “When both campaigns started advertising about the other guy, it influenced voting intentions substantially.”

This had a lot to do with the political climate. When Jean Chrétien first ran to be Prime Minister, the Liberals benefited from ads about their own policies. That’s because the Liberals had been out of power for a time, Reid said, and they needed to prove their case. In 2004, everyone already knew Martin had balanced the books; the Liberal record was clear. Focusing on their achievements, he said, would have seemed like bragging. The only effective message, in Reid’s words, was: “this guy (Harper) is a ball of bad.”

While it’s hard to measure the effect of negative advertising, the people who use it see it works, said Donna Dasko, senior vice-president of Environics Research Group.

“Criticising the other party, that’s the norm,” she said. “We haven’t seen the level of negative advertising in this country that we’ve seen in the U.S., and maybe we won’t. Maybe there is a limit.”

Still, Dasko points out the Conservatives started the campaign with a lead in the polls; and the criticism over their poop-slinging has not hurt those numbers.

“Negative ads are used all the time here,” she  “It’s a matter of degree.”

Public opinion is too complex to write off negative strategies entirely, said Jonathan Rose, a professor of political science at Queen’s University. Rose specialises in the use of communications in Canadian politics.

“It seems to be a congenial truth that Canadians are less likely than Americans to buy into negative ads,” Rose said. “But at the same time we’re seeing a convergence of advertising styles in Canada and the United States.

“Messages have to be more in-your-face to penetrate the barrage of advertising we see every day. To make an impact, they have to do something different than expected. And often, that’s negative.”

According to Rose, there is speculation that the puffin poop on Stephane Dion on a Conservative web site in the first week of the campaign was an attempt to generate media attention, which would increase traffic to the website. The site targets young voters, who are more likely to laugh off the scuffle over of a bit of computer-generated fecal matter.

Rose said parties have used the web before, but there is now greater use of multimedia like YouTube videos – which are exempt from election spending, and which contribute to the overall effect of negative advertising.

“The new battleground will be the web,” he said. 

There’s a good chance the battle will continue to be nasty. And that may not be a good thing, said Scott Reid.

“I have strong concerns about this phenomenon, and most of the people I know who are  involved in politics in a senior capacity share those concerns,” he said. “I think it does generate cynicism about the political process, and it does have a debilitating effect.”

But in reality, Reid said, the winner-take-all system of campaign politics doesn’t leave much room to be squeamish.

“When you’re running a campaign, your mandate is to win,” he said. “Negative ads might draw criticism, but I guarantee you the political media will reward no one for losing.”