Attack Ad Hall of Fame

Are polit­i­cal attack ads such a bad thing? John G. Geer, author of In Defense of Neg­a­tiv­i­ty: Attack Ads in Pres­i­den­tial Cam­paigns, doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly think so. He main­tains that they often enrich, rather than cor­rode, the polit­i­cal process. And now his pub­lish­er has assem­bled The Attack Ad Hall of Fame. Includ­ed on the list is the most famous/controversial one — the “Daisy ad” from the 1964 John­son-Gold­wa­ter cam­paign. John­son’s ad, which was only aired once, nev­er men­tioned Gold­wa­ter by name, but it raised fears about whether Gold­wa­ter might bring us to the nuclear brink. For more ads, see the Muse­um of the Mov­ing Image, and watch Geer him­self get swift-boat­ed on YouTube.

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