Editing Negative campaigning (section)

== Techniques ==
[[File:1864 US election poster.jpg|thumb|210px|Poster attacking the Democratic Party ticket in the run-up to the [[1864 United States presidential election]].]]

There are a number of techniques used in negative campaigning. The most standard form of negative campaigning is [[campaign advertising]] that serves as an attack on an opponent's personality, record, or opinion. There are two main types of ads used in negative campaigning: attack and contrast.

[[Attack ad]]s focus exclusively on the negative aspects of the opponent. There is no positive content in an attack ad, whether it is about the candidate or the opponent. Attack ads usually identify the risks associated with the opponent, often [[fearmongering|exploiting people's fears to manipulate]]. Because attack ads have no positive content, they have the potential to be more influential than contrast ads in shaping voters’ views of the sponsoring candidate's opponent.<ref name="Fridkin & Kenney, 2004">{{cite journal | last1=Fridkin | first1=Kim Leslie | last2=Kenney | first2=Patrick J. | title=Do Negative Messages Work? | journal=American Politics Research | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=32 | issue=5 | year=2004 | issn=1532-673X | doi=10.1177/1532673x03260834 | pages=570–605| s2cid=144841980 }}</ref> One of the most famous attack ads was ''[[Daisy (television commercial)|Daisy Girl]]'' by the campaign of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] that successfully portrayed Republican [[Barry Goldwater]] as threatening [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]. Common attack ad themes include painting an opponent as soft on criminals, dishonest, corrupt, or a danger to the nation. Another relatively common theme is attacking the other side for running a negative campaign.

Unlike attack ads, contrast ads contain information about both the candidate and the opponent. The information about the candidate is positive, while the information about the opponent is negative. Contrast ads compare and contrast the candidate with the opponent, juxtaposing the positive information about the candidate with the negative information of the opponent. Because contrast ads must contain positive information, contrast ads are seen as less damaging to the political process than attack ads.<ref name="Fridkin & Kenney, 2004"/>

[[Push poll]]s are attacks disguised as [[Robo call#Political calls|telephone polls]]. They might ask a question like "How would you react if Candidate A was revealed to beat his wife?", giving the impression that Candidate A might beat his wife. Members of the media and of the opposing party are deliberately not called making these tactics all but invisible and unprovable.

Dirty tricks are also common in negative political campaigns. These generally involve secretly leaking damaging information to the media. This isolates a candidate from backlash and also does not cost any money. The material must be substantive enough to attract media interest, however, and if the truth is discovered it could severely damage a campaign. Other dirty tricks include trying to feed an opponent's team false information hoping they will use it and embarrass themselves.

Often a campaign will use outside organizations, such as [[lobbying|lobby groups]], to launch attacks. These can be claimed to be coming from a neutral source and if the allegations turn out not to be true the attacking candidate will not be damaged if the links cannot be proven. Negative campaigning can be conducted by proxy. For instance, highly partisan ads were placed in the [[2004 U.S. presidential election]] by allegedly independent bodies like [[MoveOn.org]] and [[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth]].