Political Ads: Get Off My TV Already

[ABitOFluff]

About this time, we're probably all getting weary of political ads, both national and local. Here's a place to let off steam.

I'm in North Carolina, which is a big battleground state this year. However, the national ads here haven't been as bad as the local ads, where our Governor and one of our Senators is up for re-election, so we have a LOT of ads.

HB2 is a huge issue this year, so not surprisingly, a lot of the ads have to do with sex. Well, to put it another way, while current Governor Pat McCrory tried to defend HB2 in one of his ads, that hasn't been working well, so you never see that one anymore. Now, there are attack ads against his opponent, NC Attorney General Roy Cooper. What attacks can they throw at him? Well, the fact that when Cooper took office, the SBI lab was a mess and cases were left to grow cold. I've seen evidence of Roy Cooper cleaning up those cases (well, I watch a lot of Forensic Files, but I also do my research). However, to the Republicans, it's not been quick enough. So, that's what McCrory's ad attack. Every woman in every Pat McCrory ad looks like they've been crying uncontrollably just before the cameras started rolling and say they don't feel safe, thanks to Roy Cooper...Say whaaat?

In the Raleigh-Durham area, we have a pearl-clutching socialite worrying about a Gen-X "odd duck" Democrat getting into Congress. I want to think that one's backfiring, because of that ad, I looked at the candidate's Facebook page, and I agree with a lot of what he says. He also seems to be having fun with the "odd duck" label, and a lot of his followers have been posting pictures of rubber duckies to his FB.

Edited October 22, 2016 by ABitOFluff

[Linny]

I also live in North Carolina, and I've been inundated with anti-Clinton ads courtesy of the NRA. They all feature a woman talking about how she was attacked, but luckily she had a gun to protect herself, and if Clinton is president she'll lose her right to bear arms. It's so overdramatic and ridiculous, just plain fear mongering. These ads run constantly, and they all make me want to rip my hair out.

I've seen a lot of Clinton ads, but only in the past week or so have I seen many from the Trump campaign. They all talk about how he's a great supporter of women. It's pretty clearly a last ditch effort to clean up his "pussy grabbing" image.

[shoregirl]

I'm in South Jersey and most of the stations are out of Philly so I'm getting a ton of ads . A lot of Super Pac commercials from both sides.   I'm really tired of all the Katie McGinty/Pat Toomey ads.

[Bastet]

We're not terribly inundated with presidential campaign ads in Los Angeles, as it's pretty much a done deal here (we are, however, bombarded with ads about our gazillion propositions), but during football I am subjected to the NRA's odious anti-Hillary ads.

NPR recently did a bit on how political candidates are decreasing and will continue to decrease the amount they spend on TV ads, given the growing number of people who consume broadcast media in other ways.  Since I still watch everything on TV, via satellite, I'll be thrilled to see them go elsewhere.

[irisheyes]

Watching the NLCS, and some super PAC has spent a ton for anti-Hillary ones. One about how the Clinton foundation took money from bad guys and a Benghazi one.  I'm ignoring them. (Gotta focus on the Cubs now.  #FlytheW)

Edited October 23, 2016 by irisheyes

[ABitOFluff]

1 hour ago, Linny said:

I also live in North Carolina, and I've been inundated with anti-Clinton ads courtesy of the NRA. They all feature a woman talking about how she was attacked, but luckily she had a gun to protect herself, and if Clinton is president she'll lose her right to bear arms. It's so overdramatic and ridiculous, just plain fear mongering. These ads run constantly, and they all make me want to rip my hair out.

I've seen a lot of Clinton ads, but only in the past week or so have I seen many from the Trump campaign. They all talk about how he's a great supporter of women. It's pretty clearly a last ditch effort to clean up his "pussy grabbing" image.

Oh, I think I know that NRA ad. Really ironic. So Donald Trump will assure her right to carry a gun to defend herself against attackers...such as Donald Trump.

Every NRA ad kills me because of their sheer fear-mongering that a Democrat in the White House will take away everyone's guns. Hasn't happened yet, and will never, ever happen.

[maraleia]

The ads I'm hating right now are the anti-Tammy Duckworth and anti-Susana Mendoza ones. Mendoza is running for IL State Comptroller and her opposition can't even do basic math and her ads are so pedestrian.

On the bright side, most people here in Chicago are talking about the Cubs non-stop so that's drowned out a lot of the political talk and after tonight the fervor for the team is at an all time high. Go Cubs. Fly the W.

[backformore]

3 hours ago, maraleia said:

The ads I'm hating right now are the anti-Tammy Duckworth and anti-Susana Mendoza ones. Mendoza is running for IL State Comptroller and her opposition can't even do basic math and her ads are so pedestrian.

On the bright side, most people here in Chicago are talking about the Cubs non-stop so that's drowned out a lot of the political talk and after tonight the fervor for the team is at an all time high. Go Cubs. Fly the W.

Yeah, I'm getting the anti-Tammy Duckworth and anti-Mussman postcard in the mail, and shoved in my door, plus the TV ads, and the phone calls.  

Those photo postcards come in the mail EVERY DAY.   I walk in through the garage when I get the mail, and sort mail over the recycling bin.  All the political stuff goes right in the bin, I don't even read it. 

[ExplainItAgain]

Hello all my fellow North Carolinians! 

The ads are OUT. OF. CONTROL. The worst are the ads for/against McCrory and Cooper and Ross and Burr. The exaggerations are insane. We noticed the other night that ALL the ads feature women in various states of distress over what would happen if xxxx were elected.

I personally get a thrill out of seeing the "flush McCrory" signs when I'm out and about. Sorry gov, this is the hill you're dying on. I hope to god he's voted out Nov. 8.

I also want to say I was at the State Fair this week and it's like a breeding ground for Trump supporters. The Trump booth was MOBBED. So many Trump stickers. When I got to the Dem booth it was empty and people were so rude when they were offering stickers and information. One guy said he'd only vote Dem over his dead body. I know the State Fair isn't the best representative example but it was sobering.

Edited October 23, 2016 by ExplainItAgain

[atomationage]

I  talk to my fish when the commercials come on TV.  The ad that bothers me most is on the radio.  It's an ad by the soft drink companies against. a beverage tax.  The ad takes the very odd position that the government and all it's officials are "them", and the people opposed to the tax are "us".  

I didn't realize that the Cubs had won until this morning.  It's wonderful, but too bad the RIckettses will make more money.  I hope they give something to charity.   

[AimingforYoko]

Yeah, it must suck to live in a swing state every four years.

I live in MN so while we get talked about as a swing state, we're pretty blue (Last GOP we voted for was Tricky Dick), but the House ads are out of control. We're getting 3 districts worth of ads in the Twin Cities market. 3 basic types of ads in a House ad:

1. Positive ads by the candidates. Usually about some person they helped or some popular legislation they voted for.
2. Negative ad by the candidates. If it's by the Dem, it's tying their opponent to Trump. If it's by the GOP, it's either they want to raise your taxes or they support Obamacare.
3. Negative ads by the Congressional Caucuses or a SuperPAC. The opponent is wrong for MN and wrong for America.

[atomationage]

Another ad that I heard earlier and have heard before is from the oil companies, wanting us to vote in the way that is most energy friendly, whatever that means.  They don't even tell us for whom or what they want us to vote.   I think they want you to go to their website.  Fat chance I'll do that. 

[ebk57]

6 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

• Positive ads by the candidates. Usually about some person they helped or some popular legislation they voted for.
• Negative ad by the candidates. If it's by the Dem, it's tying their opponent to Trump. If it's by the GOP, it's either they want to raise your taxes or they support Obamacare.
• Negative ads by the Congressional Caucuses or a SuperPAC. The opponent is wrong for MN and wrong for America

I live in a Maryland suburb of DC, but there really aren't too many local Congressional ads on our side of the river.  However, there's a close, nasty campaign in one of the Virginia suburbs and we're getting those 3 types of ads constantly on the TV and radio.  I can't wait for this to be over.

[AuntiePam]

6 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Yeah, it must suck to live in a swing state every four years.

I live in MN so while we get talked about as a swing state, we're pretty blue (Last GOP we voted for was Tricky Dick), but the House ads are out of control. We're getting 3 districts worth of ads in the Twin Cities market. 3 basic types of ads in a House ad:

1. Positive ads by the candidates. Usually about some person they helped or some popular legislation they voted for.
2. Negative ad by the candidates. If it's by the Dem, it's tying their opponent to Trump. If it's by the GOP, it's either they want to raise your taxes or they support Obamacare.
3. Negative ads by the Congressional Caucuses or a SuperPAC. The opponent is wrong for MN and wrong for America.

In Iowa, we're getting one of these for Senator Charles Grassley -- best known as being responsible for impeding action on a SCOTUS nominee to replace Scalia.  The ad is voiced by a woman whose husband was a WWII veteran.  For some reason, this man didn't get his medals until after she contacted Grassley.  Grassley got the medals for the veteran, just before the man died.  Now that's heartwarming and all, but it's the kind of thing that an aide takes care of with a phone call to the DoD or the VA. 

We're also getting an ad against a state rep in another district.  The ad claims that this person didn't pay federal income taxes for five years.  The candidate's story is that she mistakenly underpaid SSA for a babysitter.  My guess is that she probably didn't pay at all, since she ended up owing $12K.  $12K in SSA is quite a bit of an "underpayment".

My husband yells at the TV when the Clinton ad about Trump having the nuclear codes comes on.  The ad seems to say that the President alone can launch missiles -- we don't want his tiny fingers anywhere near that button.  I don't want Trump anywhere near nuclear weapons either, but launching is more complicated than the ad implies.

[candall]

We have so many political ads, I think we must be getting a whole new state legislature!

My satellite box still thinks it lives in my old house in the "blue" city and the channels continue to come from there, so fortunately I'm not exposed to the local tykes whining at me that Hillary is a scary lady.  My state is red, but only shows medium pink on the chart, so it's a slugfest.

We also have a number of propositions on the ballot, so there are lots of ads about those, too, but I find it interesting that I can rarely figure out who's behind which ad (unless there's a sneering reference to Obaaamacare.)  The fine print always has some vague amorphous byline like "Sponsored by People Helping Other People, Inc."

[Moose135]

On 10/23/2016 at 11:43 AM, AimingforYoko said:

Yeah, it must suck to live in a swing state every four years.

They have been out of control this year.  I don't really remember it being this bad in 2012, but I moved to NC from NY that summer, so I probably wasn't paying as much attention.  I actually moved to Charlotte about a month before the Democratic Convention was held here, which was fun in its own right.

I have found one benefit to living in a swing state, however.  When I'm not working (or here at PTV) I'm usually out with the camera shooting pictures, especially aviation stuff.  I've been able to get photos of the complete set of campaign aircraft, so I'm happy about that!

[scriggle]

On 10/23/2016 at 11:43 AM, AimingforYoko said:

Yeah, it must suck to live in a swing state every four years.

Or live next to a swing state. I'm in MA and since the Boston stations also serve southern NH, we're bombarded with ads and not just presidential ones.  For the last 6+ months, the NH senate ads for Ayotte and Hassan have been non-stop and recently there's been an uptick in NH gubernatorial ads.  I've even seen ads for an NH house race. The only strictly MA ads I've seen are for ballot questions.

[atomationage]

I always find it odd that Indiana politicians pay for ads on Chicago radio and television stations.  They must be more expensive than the rates for running ads in Indiana.

[Moose135]

There's a fair amount of coverage into northern Indiana by the Chicago stations.

[BW Manilowe]

7 hours ago, Moose135 said:

There's a fair amount of coverage into northern Indiana by the Chicago stations.

I'm in Northeast IN, so we have our own affiliates. If you look at a map, we're sort of in the "T" formed where Southern Lower MI's border is left-right at the top, IN's on the left side of the "downstroke", & OH is on the right. And going from the MI line, we're in the 3rd county south on the IN side of the IN/OH line.

The weird thing, & I just really thought about it, is... Our TV stations (& National Weather Service office) cover parts of NW OH, at least as far as things like broadcasting severe weather watches & warnings for that area are concerned, but none of the NW OH or OH state political candidates/parties air political ads on our local stations. All of the ads I see, & have seen, are strictly for candidates running either in my city/county/Congressional District or in a race that affects the entire state.

But yeah, the part of IN in the Lake Michigan area & starting at some point between South Bend (whose affiliates also cover parts of Southern Lower MI) & Chicago do get their network TV from Chicago-based affiliates & see--or should see--both IL & IN political ads.

I'm not sure if out-of-state political ads air along the IN/Southern Lower MI border cities, the IN/KY border cities, the border cities along IN & the rest of IL south of Chicago, or the border cities along IN & the rest of OH. It probably depends on which market(s) those places get their media from & whether or not the campaigns involved think it's worth spending the money on the ad buys. But the Chicago/NW IN area is pretty definitely worth the ad buys for campaigns on either side of the line. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 10/23/2016 at 5:47 PM, ebk57 said:

I live in a Maryland suburb of DC, but there really aren't too many local Congressional ads on our side of the river.  However, there's a close, nasty campaign in one of the Virginia suburbs and we're getting those 3 types of ads constantly on the TV and radio.  I can't wait for this to be over.

Yep. Another Marylander here. And it continues to confuzzle me why I'm seeing these Virginia Congressional ads, and none for my state, or hell, my district. And only three Hillary ads so far: The ones where his own words are used against him, One woman who is a Republican, but voting for Hillary; a man, (don't recall if he's also a Republican) voting for Hillary. And just one, ONE Drumpf ad, which I fast forward.

I recall seeing more Congressional ads during the mid-terms. 

[TheGreenKnight]

Another North Carolinian here and I'm definitely ready for this all to be over. The one that's been hardest to bear is, "Roy Cooper can *whisper* never be governor! *whisper*" There's another ad (I can't remember who it was against, not Cooper or Deborah Ross) that has Hillary cackling like a witch out of a Disney movie. I honestly have to laugh at how ridiculous these things are. It's either laugh or cry.

Edited October 28, 2016 by TheGreenKnight

[biakbiak]

Trump's Diwali ad. is something.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

Trump's Diwali ad. is something.

That is some FUCKED up shit and he totally massacred whatever he read of the Hindi words (BIG SURPRISE! NOT!) I have A LOT of family and friends in India, and no one I spoke with, thinks this man is sane.  And I don't know who those morons that were praying to him were (Trevor Noah had a clip about it last year some time).

And that audience was fakety fake fake; looked like stock footage.

Like he just cobbled up stuff and edited it to make it LOOK like India supports his skanky Orangutany ASS.

And Yes, I am of East Indian descent.

Edited October 28, 2016 by GHScorpiosRule

[Moose135]

5 hours ago, TheGreenKnight said:

There's another ad (I can't remember who it was against, not Cooper or Deborah Ross) that has Hillary cackling like a witch out of a Disney movie.

I can't help you identify it, I've worn out the mute button on the remote with all of these commercials.

[33kaitykaity]

I'm a cord-cutter with an ad-blocker, so if I see an ad, it's completely by accident.  This one got through and I loved it.  (I'm ex-Army.)

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/videos/2016/10/25/in-new-ad-general-john-allen-ret-says-only-hillary-clinton-understands-how-to-keep-us-safe/

[DollEyes]

For all the shitty ads that have come out this campaign, there are a few that manage to rise head-and-shoulders above them. One such ad is the one for Hillary Clinton by Khzir Khan, the Gold Star father of Sgt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Truly powerful. 

[MulletorHater]

I live in D.C. and am starting to see political ads for some of the local races in nearby Northern Virginia.  There's a pretty effective one running against Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, which links her to Drumpf.  

I read somewhere that this was going to be a nationwide strategy.

[ebk57]

1 minute ago, MulletorHater said:

I live in D.C. and am starting to see political ads for some of the local races in nearby Northern Virginia.  There's a pretty effective one running against Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, which links her to Drumpf.  

I read somewhere that this was going to be a nationwide strategy.

I'm just outside DC and, oddly enough, that's the only race that seems to be running TV ads around here.  Surely there must be other competitive races in the area...  

Although honestly, I don't want to see more ads.  I just want to see fewer Comstock/Bennett ads.  For the most part, they're awful.

[AuntiePam]

22 hours ago, MulletorHater said:

I live in D.C. and am starting to see political ads for some of the local races in nearby Northern Virginia.  There's a pretty effective one running against Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, which links her to Drumpf.  

I read somewhere that this was going to be a nationwide strategy.

In Iowa, we're getting anti-David Young ads that tie him to Trump.  And anti-Bill Mowrer ads that tie him to Nancy Pelosi.  I can't figure that one out -- why Pelosi and not Hillary? 

The negative ads are all doing a good job finding the most unflattering photos.  Mowrer isn't an attractive guy anyway, and the ads showing him with trout-lips don't help. 

[MulletorHater]

I finally saw the very powerful Khizr Khan ad on MSNBC tonight, where he asks if his fallen son would have a place in Drumpf's America.

No words...just tears!

All I can think of are what shit stains Drumpf's older sons, Uday and Qusay, are compared to Captain Humayun Khan--a young man who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Been getting ads here and there. But thank g-d for the mute button (if I'm in the middle of watching something and I don't want to turn the channel), the fast forward button (for the same reason) or just turning the channel.

[Ohwell]

It not the Trump/Clinton ads that drive me up a wall.  

It's the neverending ads that are being run by two women running for the Congressional seat in my district.  I mean, they run non-stop, 24/7 on all the local channels.  I will be so happy when Nov. 9th is here so I won't have to see those damn ads anymore!

[jazzpno]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 4:14 PM, AuntiePam said:

anti-Bill Mowrer ads that tie him to Nancy Pelosi.  I can't figure that one out -- why Pelosi and not Hillary? 

I think for a lot of conservatives, Nancy Pelosi is the ultimate "Big Bad". One of our local (central Indiana) ads is trying to tie a congressional candidate to Pelosi, actually referencing the "Clinton/Pelosi agenda" as if that's a thing.

[callmebetty]

Now Piece of ass,  Ivanka is being used for ads. I vomit about the man know one knows. No Ivanka we do know, remember? He tells it  exactly like  it is !

[GHScorpiosRule]

What I am hating the most out of the ads aren't the ads-but the commercials for the debates and now Election Day-  it's hyped and promoted as some reality show finale/WWE/sports event.

One more thing to despise and loathe about that tangerine tinted piece of shit-for lowering and debasing what our democracy is about.

There aren't enough words to express my anger and sadness to what we've been reduced to. 

[ABitOFluff]

The local political ads have morphed into white noise for me for the most part, so I'm noticing the Tangerine Nightmare's newest ads more lately.

It's like they all take place in a Bizarro World. All this time I thought the country has been doing better since the crushing recession of 2008, but I've been wrong!

Ivanka says we don't know the wonderful, caring dad she grew up with (OMG, he's really such a sweetie!).

Voting for Hillary (cast against the background of a Federal prison yard) will bring about the same: no jobs (despite unemployment at an all- time low)! more crime! (despite violent crime being at an all-time low).

Voting for Trump? 20% lower taxes for individuals! $5000 in child care tax credits! 35% lower taxes for business owners! More jobs!

Don't ask how, just believe me!