Can negative election advertising backfire?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Some municipal election ads have attacked local candidates, while others have called out their flaws in a public way. News1130 is talking to a consumer affair expert about the effects of negative advertising.

Lindsay Meredith with SFU says those up for election should tread lightly, as these types of campaigns can leave voters with a bad taste in their mouths. “The problem we get into with negative advertising is that we know that there is push-back from that.”

“The problem being then is I spend all my time criticizing the other guys’ product,” he explains. “Then finally, the voter says ‘Yeah, and what are you going to do? You’ve said nothing about your product either.’ You can pick up some negative reaction that way.”

But if a lot of time is then wasted on potential leaders defending themselves “that gives [candidates] time to start talking to voters and telling them how wonderful [they] are… and what they’re going to accomplish,”says Meredith.

“If you don’t use that valuable time and space… then I guess you are right up there in ‘Stupidville’ with a lot of other guys that won’t get elected,” he adds.

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