On Negative Ads

John Ellis: “Over the course of at least two decades, powered by tens of billions of dollars of negative advertising, political campaigns have told the electorate that elected officials (or those seeking public office) are horrible, lying, thieving miscreants. After a while, people might get the idea that elected officials are horrible, lying, thieving miscreants.”

“Put another way, American political campaigns, every two years (and a bit more in between), spend vast amounts of money doing everything possible to destroy the electorate’s faith in American politics.”

“Apple doesn’t do that in its ‘category.’ Coca-Cola doesn’t either. Nor does Walmart or Costco or Eli Lilly. There’s a reason they don’t. You don’t burn the village to save it.”