Attack ad

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In political campaigns, an attack ad is an advertisement designed to wage a personal attack against an opposing candidate or political party in order to gain support for the attacking candidate -- generally designed to accomplish this by depressing support for the candidate or party being attacked. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning or smear campaigns, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media. An attack ad will generally unfairly criticize an opponent's political platform, usually by pointing out its faults. Often the ad will simply make use of innuendo, based on opposition research. Political attack ads across all types of media can have different strategic aims. Some are character attacks, trying to persuade the viewer to think differently about a candidate's character in hopes that they will reconsider their perception of the candidate and who they are as a person. Another strategy is an attack on the candidate's policy or political...

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