The attack of ads

The presidential election has just passed, did you know? If you don’t, you live under a rock. The recent onslaught of political ads on all social media platforms, commercials, billboards and everywhere else made it awfully hard to ignore. It was impossible to watch a football game, or even a YouTube clip, without seeing multiple ads spewing hate and fear at you in an attempt to sway your vote. 

In recent years, political ads target fear: they try to get you to fear the other candidate. Both sides attack their opponents by trying to get people to fear them, and it makes ads even harder to tolerate. 

Pennsylvania is a swing state. Due to that, we were being attacked by ads harder than other states might have been. We had both sides of the political spectrum fighting for our votes because we could go blue or red. 

But are the ads effective? I’d argue no. Most people brush them off, stop listening or even turn them off when they come on. The highly exaggerated ads that don’t ever seem to be telling the full truth aren’t where most people are looking for reliable information. I suppose there is some effectiveness to them, but is the attack of ads really needed? I couldn’t even watch the Eagles game without a minimum of one political ad per commercial break. I couldn’t drive down the street without seeing a truly insane amount of yard signs, especially in medians on bigger roads. I couldn’t go a day without getting text after text about voting, even after I had already mailed my ballot. In a time where every vote counts, these ads have done nothing but leave people frustrated, discouraged, and confused.