With Presidential elections come presidential election ads — tough ones, brutal ones. Shock and awe is the name of the game to get voters’ attention, even if the facts don’t support the story.  Topping the all-time list are a few classics — and the presidential advisors have already returned to the playbook to see if the concept still works. 

Remember the Dukakis Wille Horton ad?   Strong, somewhat terrifying visuals of a prison with a cold, matter of fact voice over.  Well it’s back.  Check out this Obama ‘Willie Horton’ ad sponsored by ExposeObama.com.  

Expect a version of the classic Michael Dukakis Tank commercial.  It made Dukakis look ridiculous and you can bet there are political operatives looking for snaps of Obama in similar situations.  In fact some of the military elements of this piece were injected into the following ad (3 am McCain)

Hillary Clinton’s effective 3 am call ad has already been copied and updated by the McCain campaign new version…  3 am McCain.

Another top ten political ad still sends chills down the spine almost
50 years later.  It’s an ad that ran only once, created by the Johnson
campaign, yet it’s still much balyhooed today….  the Daisy ad.

Now here’s something racy that was posted on rapper P Diddy’s blog.  Very interesting stuff, done with a home video camera by the well known rapper.  WARNING — It has foul language, but it’s highly viral….  Dont’ blame the messenger if you don’t like it; P Diddy Blog Rant on McCain.

Let’s end with something completely different…. an uplifting political ad… my favorite all time politcal ad voiced by ad guru Hal Riney (rip)… morning in america.  It’s beautiful, it’s hopeful and positive and it’s inspirational.  All the things the other ads above are negative and cruel.   Big problem here though about taking the high ground.. it doesn’t always get you the attention and headlines that going negative does.