Editing Attack ad (section)

==Examples==

===United States===
The first onscreen attack ads in the U.S. are usually traced back to the [[1934 California gubernatorial election]]. [[Socialism|Socialist]] author [[Upton Sinclair]] was running as the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate against [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Frank Merriam]]. It was the depths of the [[Great Depression]], and Sinclair's [[End Poverty in California]] (EPIC) campaign platform had attracted widespread support. In response, the [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] film studios, led by [[Louis B. Mayer]]'s [[MGM]], raised funds to create a series of anti-Sinclair attack ads in the form of [[Short film|short films]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Critchlow |first1=Donald T. |title=When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=26–27 |isbn=978-1139027106}}</ref> Produced by [[Irving Thalberg]], the shorts were titled "California Election News" and "were shown in almost every [movie] theater across the state."<ref>{{cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Greg |title=How Hollywood producers created the first conservative political attack ads |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-10-01/hollywood-producers-first-conservative-attack-ads-upton-sinclair-california |date=October 1, 2022}}</ref> This pioneering use of [[negative campaigning]] was depicted in the 2020 [[Netflix]] film ''[[Mank]]'',<ref>{{cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Greg |date=December 7, 2020 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/movies/mank-upton-sinclair.html |title='Mank' and Politics: What Really Happened in 1934 California |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> as well as in the 2022 [[PBS]] documentary, ''The First Attack Ads: Hollywood vs. Upton Sinclair''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/show/first-attack-ads-hollywood-vs-upton-sinclair/ |date=October 2022 |title=''The First Attack Ads: Hollywood vs. Upton Sinclair'' |publisher=[[PBS]]}}</ref>

[[File:Daisy (1964).webm|thumb|left|thumbtime=3|"Daisy" advertisement]]
One of the earliest and most famous television attack ads, known as "[[Daisy (advertisement)|Daisy]]", was used by [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] against [[Barry Goldwater]] in the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 presidential election]]. The ad opened with a young girl innocently picking petals from a daisy, while a man's voice performed a countdown to zero. It then zoomed in to an extreme close-up to her eye, and cut to an image of a [[nuclear explosion]]. The ad was shocking and disturbing, but also very effective. It convinced many that Goldwater's more aggressive approach to fighting the [[Cold War]] could result in a [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear conflict]].<ref name="daisy">{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er5h_TXun6o |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/Er5h_TXun6o |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Daisy Girl|medium=Television ad|people=Schwartz, Tony (director)|year=1964}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

During the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential election]], Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]] made a political ad against candidate [[Spiro Agnew]] with Humphrey laughing on the TV screen showing the text "Agnew, for vice president?". The ad ended with a quote "This would be funny, if it weren't so serious..." and it also ended with Humphrey coughing due to his non-stop laughter.

Attack ads were used again by the campaign of [[George H. W. Bush]] against Democratic candidate [[Michael Dukakis]] in the [[1988 United States presidential election|1988 presidential election]]. The two most famous were the "Willie Horton" and "Tank Ride" ads. The "Willie Horton" ad began with a statement of Vice President Bush's support of the death penalty. Then it described the case of [[Willie Horton]], who was convicted of murder. The ad stated that Governor Dukakis's prison furlough program (unsupervised weekend passes from Massachusetts prison) released Horton ten times; in one of those furloughs, he kidnapped a young couple, stabbed the boy and repeatedly raped the girl. The ad ended with, "Weekend prison passes. Dukakis on crime."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTdUQ9SYhUw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/wTdUQ9SYhUw |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|chapter=Analysis of a "Willie Horton" ad from the 1988 campaign|title=Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story|publisher=InterPositive Media|year=2008}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The "Tank Ride" ad<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm10.html |title=Michael Dukakis, 1988 – Another Landmark Image |work=100 Photographs that Changed the World |publisher=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801060800/http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm10.html |archive-date=August 1, 2015 }}</ref> from 1988 was an attack on Dukakis by the [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://presidentialcampaign2004.coas.missouri.edu/general/spots_analysis/bush88tank_movie.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080202175405/http://presidentialcampaign2004.coas.missouri.edu/general/spots_analysis/bush88tank_movie.html|archive-date=2008-02-02|title=Presidential Campaign 2004 – Their Message and Their Analysis|publisher=TV Spot History}}</ref> It created a lasting negative impression and helped guarantee Dukakis' defeat. The ad suggested that Bush was more supportive of [[military spending]] and weapons programs than Dukakis. The footage, pulled from the news media, showed Dukakis riding a tank in his attempt to counter the claim that he was weak on defense. He wore a large, oversized helmet and a wide smile, which was used by the GOP to insinuate that he was a fool. The GOP also added gear sounds from an [[Semi-trailer truck|18-wheeler truck]] to imply that Dukakis could not run the tank smoothly – although tanks do not have gears that grind.<ref>{{cite book|author=Geer, John G.|year=2006|title=In Defense of Negativity: attack ads in presidential campaigns|location=Chicago|publisher=the University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226284996|pages=127–128}}</ref>

The [[Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2008|2008 Democratic presidential primaries]] featured an ad by [[Hillary Clinton]] directed at her main rival at the time, [[Barack Obama]], which aired days before the [[Texas Democratic primary and caucuses, 2008|Texas primary]]. The ad began by showing children asleep in bed while a phone rang in the background. A [[voice-over]] stated that it was 3 a.m., the phone was ringing in the [[White House]], and that "something's happening in the world". The voice-over then asked voters if they wanted someone who "already knows the world's leaders, knows the military" and is "tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world" to pick up the phone.<ref name="oldref8">{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr7odFUARg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/7yr7odFUARg |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Hillary Clinton Ad – 3 AM White House Ringing Phone|year=2008|publisher=Hillary Clinton campaign}}{{cbignore}}</ref> While Obama was never mentioned by name, the implication was clear and the ad set off a firestorm of discussion and controversy, causing even Obama himself to respond and describe it as an ad that "play[ed] on people's fears", predicting it would not work.<ref name="oldref9">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/us/politics/01campaign.html?_r=1|author=Seelye, Katherine Q.|author2=Zeleny, Jeff.|date=March 1, 2008|title=Clinton Questions Role of Obama in Crisis|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Later in the campaign, after Obama had become the Democratic nominee, Republican nominee [[John McCain]] echoed a similar sentiment. In a controversial ad called "Celebrity", McCain's campaign asked, "[Barack Obama] is the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead?" The ad juxtaposed Obama supporters with photos of [[Britney Spears]] and [[Paris Hilton]].<ref>{{cite web|title=McCain calls Obama the biggest celebrity in the world|url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/30/mccain-ad-calls-obama-biggest-celebrity-in-the-world/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080805072508/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/30/mccain-ad-calls-obama-biggest-celebrity-in-the-world/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 5, 2008|work=CNN Politics|publisher=CNN}}</ref>

By 2010, attack ads had spread online as political candidates published their ads on [[YouTube]]. [[Carly Fiorina]], a Republican candidate from California, released a video on YouTube depicting former Republican opponent [[Tom Campbell (California politician)|Tom Campbell]] as a "[[Fiscal conservative]] in name only”.<ref name="oldref5">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/us/politics/21ads.html|author=Steinhauer, Jennifer|date=March 20, 2010|title=Dose of Venom for Candidates Turns Ads Viral|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

===Mexico===
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2013}}
The first attack ads of the [[2006 Mexican general election]] were launched by the conservative [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]] against [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]]; the ad claimed that López Obrador's "populistic" proposals would drive Mexico further into economic crisis and bankruptcy. The [[Party of the Democratic Revolution]] answered with attack ads against the current president [[Felipe Calderón]], claiming that he was partly culpable for the [[Mexican peso crisis|1994 economic crisis]]; since Calderón was running with a motto of "the president of employment", the ads closed with, "dirty hands, zero employments". After López Obrador alleged that Calderón was illegally patronizing his brother-in-law [[Hildebrando Zavala]], the tagline was changed to "dirty hands, one employment for his brother-in-law".

===Canada===
Although it has been found that [[Elections in Canada|Canadian elections]] are less likely to use attack ads than US elections, there has been an increasingly strong presence of negative ads in Canadian campaigns in modern times. Comparatively, Canadians were more likely to use acclaim ads- or ads that praise another individual- than Americans, as American campaigns are much more likely to use attack ads than Canadian campaigns. Overall, however, Canadian campaigns are more likely to use attack ads than acclaim ads, similarly to the US.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Mahone |first1=Jessica A. |title=A comparative content analysis of televised political advertising in the United States and Canada in 2004 and 2008 |year=2009 |id={{ProQuest|304874542}} }}</ref> Famous examples of Canadian attack ads include the [[1993 Chrétien attack ad]] during the [[1993 Canadian federal election]], and the [[2006 Liberal Party of Canada election ads]] during the [[2006 Canadian federal election]], both of which were widely criticized and ultimately managed to improve the electoral results of the candidates being targeted by the ads.

=== Philippines ===
During the [[2016 Philippine general election|2016 general election]] campaign, presidential candidate and [[Senate of the Philippines|Senator]] [[Antonio Trillanes]] launched negative advertisements that featured six children against presidential candidate and [[Mayor of Davao City|Davao City Mayor]] [[Rodrigo Duterte]] on [[ABS-CBN]] a few days before the election on May 9, 2016.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/nation/05/05/16/anti-duterte-ad-causes-uproar-online|title=Anti-Duterte ad causes uproar online|work=ABS-CBN News|access-date=May 7, 2016|date=May 5, 2016}}</ref>

The 30-second advertisement showing each of the six children (four boys and two girls) briefly criticizes the video clips shown: Duterte's remarks of "killing everybody", his cursing on [[Pope Francis]], yelling "Mabuhay ang [[New People's Army|NPA]]" ({{lit|Long live the NPA!}}), kissing a woman and his comments about the rape-slay on the Australian missionary, the remarks of his war on drug campaign "would be bloody" should Duterte elected president, and finally raising his blurred middle finger.<ref>{{cite news |title=Anti Duterte TV Advertisement / Commercial |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46B4e6c_hs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/P46B4e6c_hs |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The advertisement drew criticism from Duterte's supporters on social media.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/131969-anti-duterte-ad-trillanes|title=Anti-Duterte ad by Trillanes riles up Duterte supporters|author=Pia Ranada|publisher=Rappler|date=May 5, 2016|access-date=2020-07-10}}</ref> A 72-hour [[Injunction|temporary restraining order]] was issued by [[Taguig]] Regional Trial Court to stop ABS-CBN and its TV stations from airing the negative advertisement.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/783789/cayetano-wins-tro-vs-anti-duterte-ads-but-word-war-goes-on|title=Cayetano wins TRO vs anti-Duterte ads, but word war goes on|newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer|access-date=May 7, 2016|date=May 7, 2016}}</ref> Duterte's running mate, vice-presidential candidate [[Alan Peter Cayetano]], accused President [[Benigno Aquino III]]; two other rivals, [[Mar Roxas]] and [[Grace Poe]]; and ABS-CBN of conspiracy for making the ad. Former PCOO Secretary [[Sonny Coloma]] denied the conspiracy claim made by Cayetano.<ref>{{cite web |title=Taguig RTC issues TRO vs. anti-Duterte ad
|url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/565273/taguig-rtc-issues-tro-vs-anti-duterte-ad/story/|author=Trisha Macas|publisher=GMA News|date=2016-05-06|access-date=2020-03-08}}</ref> Prior to the airing of the ad, the [[ABS-CBN Corporation]] issued a statement that the ad had been reviewed to the ethics committee, complied with election laws, and was allowed to air. Later, [[TV5 (Philippine TV network)|TV5]] refused to air the controversial ad, the [[TV5 Network]] stating that the ad had not met requirements.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/783574/abs-cbn-on-anti-duterte-tvc-we-are-duty-bound-to-air-legitimate-ad|title=ABS-CBN on 'anti-Duterte' TVC: We are duty-bound to air legitimate ad|author=Nestor Corrales|publisher=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=2016-05-06|access-date=July 10, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/783655/tv5-we-didnt-air-anti-duterte-ad-due-to-unmet-requirements|title=TV5: Didn't air 'anti-Duterte' ad due to unmet requirements|author=Yuji Vincent Gonzales|publisher=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=May 6, 2016|access-date=2020-07-10}}</ref>

On February 24, 2020, during the [[Senate of the Philippines|Senate]] hearing on the [[ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy|ABS-CBN franchise renewal]], [[GMA Network (company)|GMA Network, Inc.]] First Vice President for Legal Affairs, Maria Luz Delfin clarified that the [[GMA Network]] had not aired the ad, stating that it was disapproved by the internal election committee.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/727172/gma-network-clarification-on-pamana-ad-against-duterte/story/|title=GMA Network clarification on ad against Duterte|publisher=GMA News|date=February 24, 2020|access-date=July 10, 2020}}</ref>

===Non-political usage===
While attack ads have primarily been relegated for political usage, there have been some instances of private businesses running them. In 2013, [[Highmark]], a healthcare company associated with the [[Blue Cross Blue Shield Association]], and the [[University of Pittsburgh Medical Center]] (UPMC) were unable to reach an agreement on whether Highmark's insurance would be accepted at UPMC. Highmark also entered into negotiations to acquire the struggling [[West Penn Allegheny Health System]]; Highmark and UPMC then started airing attack ads at each other. Both parties' ads accused the other of pushing patients with their respective [[health insurance]] plans to hospitals operated by their respective health insurance provider, as well as attacking each other's [[nonprofit]] status.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/08/01/upmc-and-highmark-engage-in-tv-ad-war/|title=UPMC and Highmark Engage in TV Ad Wars|date=August 1, 2013|publisher=CBS Pittsburgh}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4481931-74/upmc-highmark-health#axzz2bXiuA6El|author=Pucko, Timothy|author2=Conti, David|title=UPMC sues Highmark over advertising campaign|date=August 5, 2013|publisher=TribeLive News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/upmc-pittsburgh-stake-positions-for-court-fight-on-nonprofit-status-680393/|author=Hamill, Sean D.|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|title=UPMC, Pittsburgh stake positions for court fight on nonprofit status|date=March 22, 2013|publisher= PG Publishing Co., Inc.}}</ref> At the same year, [[T-Mobile US|T-Mobile]], [[AT&T]], [[Sprint Corporation|Sprint]] and [[Verizon]] began airing attack ads against each other.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/att-made-this-t-mobile-attack-ad-2013-3|title=AT&T Made This T-Mobile Attack Ad|date=March 4, 2013|publisher=Business Insider}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/t-mobile-fires-back-at-at-t-in-attack-ads/|title=T-Mobile fires back at AT&T in attack ads|date=March 6, 2013|publisher=CNET}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tmonews.com/2013/07/t-mobiles-new-print-attack-ad-hits-att-verizon-again-and-again/|title=Home > T-Mobile's New Print Attack Ad Hits AT&T, Verizon Again, And Again T-Mobile's New Print Attack Ad Hits AT&T, Verizon Again, And Again|date=July 24, 2013|publisher=TmoNews}}</ref>