Negative Ads have become Political Dialog

Just when people thought politics couldn't get much worse, the 2012 presidential election managed to pump $6 billion dollars worth of negative ads across television, radio, print and the Internet. Some estimates claim that more than 80% of all political ads this year were negative nature. Worse than this though, the downward spiral of political discourse is taking the rest of the media with it - tarnishing the image and credibility of everyone involved.

If you don't have anything nice to say...

Perhaps it is to be expected that with the dual influences of the campaign spending explosion triggered by the Supreme Court "Citizen's United" Campaign Finance decision and the still sluggish economy that the election advertisements would be overwhelmingly negative. Even with those rationalizations though, it was still hard to watch. One wonders if any election these days can elevate itself beyond the level of mutual character assassination. Even more to the point though is whether any meaningful political dialog can occur in these types of environments.

Does this seem silly, well, don't the other negative ads seem goofy as well?

First we need to make a distinction regarding negative ads and let's say attack ads. Perhaps such a distinction is not formally recognized but for the sake of argument let's contrast these two types of combative ads:

1. The Traditional Negative Ad - It is first and foremost a personal assault. The personality of the candidate is under fire; the types of charges leveled can include ideology but the main thrust of the strategy is to tarnish the character of the candidate. These ads are part of the main dialog between the candidates - in fact this year - nearly all of the dialog has been negative.
2. The Proxy Attack - The proxy attack is something that's been around for a long while but has now taken on new dimensions given the virtually unlimited influx of cash and special interests participation. The proxy attack allows a much wider variety of attacks and all sorts of related propaganda. Since these ads are not officially linked to the campaigns there is little or no restraint or responsibility shown. 

Both types of ads have been around since political advertising began. The problem of course is not the existence of these types of ads but rather our increasing reliance on them to convey the majority of our national political dialog (at least during election cycles). Neither of these types of ads is concerned with or does a good job of actually establishing a dialog. The Voters have a right to know what the differences are between those who would represent them.

Ads like this are quite simply embarrassing the nation...

What seems clear is that the Negative Ad is gaining momentum and is becoming the primary form of all political advertising and perhaps the primary form of all political dialog. Positive advertising is relatively rare as candidates seem hesitant t talk about what if anything they intend to do if elected. So, why do politicians seem to be moving en masse to the least civilized of the available options? Well - they think Negative Ads (personal assaults) work. Do they, really?

It's hard to quantify that answer given that other factors are usually involved. Someone who outspends their opponent 3 to 1 and uses negative advertising and wins could point to the money, the ads or both as the keys to victory. What does seem clear is that negative advertising turns people off - first towards the candidate being targeted, next towards the candidate making the attack and lastly towards the entire unpleasant process. Eventually these people become turned off altogether and stop voting or participating in politics at all. And that in itself may be a victory for someone.

This parody managed to capture most of this campaigns core themes - that kinda of scary...

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

Read More

10 Signs the End is Near

There were a lot of people who were fairly disappointed when the planet didn't vaporize on May 21st, 2011, especially those poor bastards who gave away everything they owned in anticipation of the joyous event. Never fear though, because Apocalypse 2.0 is coming to a planet near you this year on December 21st! (the date of the 13th Mayan Bactune). Yes, that's right - we're pretty sure this time that the end is truly near. All of the signs are here - all the planets are lining up and those Mayans are going to get their revenge after all (or so we've been told by some of their descendants who now work in a Corona Cerveza factory). We may even have to come up with a new set of Apocalypse Party Tips as the last one may have already been used in Apocalypse 1.0 parties and probably wouldn't be as fun a second time.

How can we a prediction like this with such certainty? Well - because we researched this through a painstaking processes of Internet browsing that lasted for hours. The Mayans were in contact with the Chariots of the God's Aliens who by the way are a lot nicer and not at all related to the X-Files aliens or the Alien alien or even the Predator alien. Anyway, these nicer ones told the Mayans what was up to give us a chance to build our own escape ships and go somewhere else but maybe they should have told the Spanish because the Spanish or Aztecs or someone wiped out all of the Mayans and thus we're all screwed. Still not convinced? Well, we've also been given many, many signs that the end is near and we've include the top 10 below.

Could people with hats like these be wrong? We seriously doubt it

The Top 10 Apocalyptic Omens:

1. The Fiscal Cliff will lead to tax increases for millionaires which will of course signify the end of the world.
2. Tim Tebow can't win any games - so God has forsaken us.
3. Saturday Night Live isn't funny anymore - wait that's happened like 6 times before - oh it's the 7th time - got it.
4. George Lucas gave away Star Wars.
5. Obama won a second term and now all those dozens of books and movies telling us how bad the second term will be have to come true, right?
6. Windows 8 has been launched and Breaking Dawn part 2 will be the biggest debut in movie history, yuk!
7. We've run out of ideas for new Zombie movies or TV shows.
8. Real-life Zombies are eating people's faces - how gross is that? (so maybe there's one more idea left)
9. The weather is so bad that even Locusts refuse to go outdoors.
10. Aliens have placed detour signs around Earth which is why we've witnessed a big slowdown in alien abductions and UFO sightings.

It turns out that the Nazca lines in Peru were in fact the Nascar lines - a particularly difficult track for alien pod racers. Another recent theory posits that this is in fact a sign wherein one group of irate aliens were flipping the bird to another. We may never know for sure as we're all going to die on December 21st. 

We told you Corona Beer was involved, didn't we, huh, huh...

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

Read More