Negative ads work because the most basic emotion is fear. It doesn't matter if they are true, it takes time to check facts and only an instant to get outraged. BTW, the "positive" ads aren't any better. They have been running the ad about Romney leading his employees into New York City to find another employees duaghter, not mentioning that the incident happened in 1996, the girl lied about playing tennis and went to a rave, and she was found in New Jersey by tracking a caller that had called about the reward. She was also fine, other than the after effects of the Xtasy she was doing. But this is a positive ad...and still lies

Feisty, Congratulations on your question being selected for "In the Boiler Room"

The Nissan ad with a bunch of cars driving down the road with the windshields covered by tablecloths is certainly very scary!

Good job Feisty!

It makes me sad that negative ads work for both sides but they do. Untruthful negative ads are the worst. Congrats Feisty on having your question selected.

One thing I know for sure is Obama will swamp the airwaves with negative ads about Romney. Since Obama really doesn't have very many positives in his past, he has to rely on negative ads for his mainstay. I've seen his attempt at positive ads and in less than 30 seconds he listed all of his accomplishments. They played this ad in Florida for a couple of weeks and after seeing it once, that was it... all subsequent playings sounded like a broken record. All it did was make me change the channel.

It is pretty much established that negative campaigning doesn't work to win elections. After hearing several negative ads about an opponent, it eventually sounds like the candidate is complaining too much and that is a huge turn off to most people. People want to hear what a candidate is good for, not what his opponent is not good for.