Conservative Party of Canada Ad Campaign

If you are looking for the ads The Conservative Party of Canada plans to run across Canada, the party has it’s own YouTube page, with the ads up.

via: Political Staples

If you’d like to know about ads The Liberal Party of Canada ran in 2004 before an election call CTV, May 2004.

Ezra Levant thinks Telecaster (which screens TV commercials airing in Canada  for content) is out to censor The Conservative Party.
Liberal reaction

Political negative ads are designed to dislodge support for their target (this batch is The Conservative Party going after
a) Liberal Leader Stephan Dion
b) Liberal Party environmental policy.
- Negative ads are designed for the viewer to feel positive toward the sponsor
- Negative political ads are designed to make the viewer believe they are more informed
- TV ads are designed to get results within a short period of time, and political parties use them for image, issue and negative (attack) messages.
Now that negative ads actually become part of our news cycles (the ads being covered by traditional media) political parties tend to pour even more money into them. While studies are inconclusive about the actual efficacy of negative political advertising it is known partisans (members and voters of the party running the ads) find them reinforcing. Negative ads can reduce the ‘image’ of the target (in this batch Dion and Liberal Party environmental policy)
Political strategists believe negative political ads work because people are more likely to vote against something than for something, academics tend to disagree.

Now that we have other forms of communication added to the mix (the internet, cell phones text messages) and voters are able to analyse information more quickly, there can be an added backlash effect.
People can begin to feel resentful because negative advertising polarizes, the individual starts feeling and believing the message is they can’t think for themselves.
People also begin to feel resentful because they see believability and truth eroding.

With instant and public forms of communication available to voters we can voice their pleasure or disgust at negative advertising before ads even go to air.
What researchers have found is that as people start to perceive them as unethical and tune out both the sponsor and their target.

Web Journal of Mass Communication Research December 1998

What is your response to negative political party ads?

Update: Paul Wells makes the point  - “What’s worth noting is that Harper likes to go after an opponent’s strength, not his perceived weakness.” 
via CTV Politics blog: A Liberal who will never get voice over work threw this up on YouTube.