Politicial Ads

Cremlian

I was Surfing the web this morning and since I don't watch TV (on TV) I've been avoiding most of the Political ads being thrown around during this time of the year. Anyhow here are some funny ones I've seen after a brief look through the web. (it's not like I'm going to be convinced this time around not to vote nearly all Democrat, Libertarian or Green across the board.)

Porn!

Democrats take over congress

So post funny Political ads you find!

EsonLinji

The Zucker ad is just over the top fear mongering. Laughable at best.

baltmatrix

In Maryland the political ads have come down to arguing about puppies. I shit you not.

Cremlian

Post them ^_^

Corbin

I love how when democrats refer to republican stuff they always say it's "racist" or "nazi" that's all they can ever come up with. Personally I dislike politics... gah

Kilarney

I'm a moderate... but I have to say that between liberals and conservatives, liberals do more to suppress free speech than conservatives. Just my personal experience.

Cremlian

I'm a moderate... but I have to say that between liberals and conservatives, liberals do more to suppress free speech than conservatives. Just my personal experience.

Uh... Ok. Lets see some proof. (burden of Proof, you!)

Jason

The ads in Ohio have been especially bad this year, because both parties are pumping buko bucks into the state, which will likely be ruled in all three branches by the Democratic party this year for the first time in decades. So the ads have been killer to watch, and not far off from this:

Jason wants to run for Congress. Curious, considering Jason is a CANNIBAL JEW!
Cannibals the world over have eaten hundreds, if not billions of people. Do you want your children to be eaten before they can collect Social Security? Jason likes them with some favre beans, and preferably a cianti.

Jason the Cannibal Jew - bad for Ohio, bad for America.

tuttle88

I think my friend has a great idea for political campaigns. Each candidate in your area submits a page of text or dot points as to what their policies will be. Then the Electoral commission or other relevant body puts them all together and posts one out to everyone eligible to vote (or emails them if you prefer). It saves money and I don't have to watch stupid political ads all the time.

MarcusNoble

I always hated these political advertisements. They just seem too outrageous to me to take seriously. And usually try to stretch the truth about what is really going on with these politicians.

A good example of this is when a commercial attacks a politician's voting record. A commercial may say something like "my opponent voted against education spending". When in actuality, the politician being mentioned voted against a spending program that may have put a large amount of money in something they didn't want to vote for (defense spending, for the sake of argument) and maybe had a small amount in it for education.

Apreche

I am not a fan of any advertising, especially political advertising. However, I think people should be able to advertise whatever they want, wherever they want. Freedom of speech, it's that simple. If someone wants to buy an ad on a TV channel saying X, Y and Z and the TV channel agrees, who are we to say no? As long as the advertisement isn't fraudulent or slanderous, I see nothing wrong with everyone having as many crazy ads as they want. If you don't like the ads, because I sure don't, then don't watch them. I don't watch TV, so I don't have this problem at all. I'm not going to say that you are all bad people for watching Television, but I will say that you would be much better off without it.

Jason

I am not a fan of any advertising, especially political advertising. However, I think people should be able to advertise whatever they want, wherever they want. Freedom of speech, it's that simple. If someone wants to buy an ad on a TV channel saying X, Y and Z and the TV channel agrees, who are we to say no? As long as the advertisement isn't fraudulent or slanderous, I see nothing wrong with everyone having as many crazy ads as they want. If you don't like the ads, because I sure don't, then don't watch them. I don't watch TV, so I don't have this problem at all. I'm not going to say that you are all bad people for watching Television, but I will say that you would be much better off without it.

Does this include the freedom of speech to lie about products/candidates? That would be an interesting debate to throw around. There really aren't laws against lying in general speech, but there are truth in advertising laws. What do you think, Scott?

Starfox

There really aren't laws against lying in general speech, but there are truth in advertising laws.

Isn't lying to hurt someone's reputation slander?

Apreche

Maybe you didn't read every word in my post. I clearly said

As long as the advertisement isn't fraudulent or slanderous...

Lying in an advertisement is like yelling fire in a crowded theater. Due the the loudness and reach of advertisement speech, you can cause real damage by saying certain things. If you say you are selling new cars for $1, but you actually mean $10,000, a lot of people might lose significant amounts of time and effort going to your dealership. If you say a candidate beats his wife, he might be investigated needlessly. That's a waste of taxpayer time and money, and it might ruin someone's life and career. If you say homeopathic medicine works, someone might use it in lieu of real medicine. This might result in needless suffering, or worse, a death that could have been prevented.

It's also important not to omit important information. This is why we have the surgeon general's warning. I'm personally really not a fan of warning labels, but there are times when I think they are needed. There are many times where there is a serious non-obvious danger, and a warning is needed. For example, if a drug has potentially life-changing side-effects when combined with alcohol, it should be mandatory that you clearly and openly share that information.

The tricky part comes in when someone makes an advertisement that implies falsehoods, but doesn't say them. For example, you could make an ad for hunting knives that is a happy cartoon. In the ad, you don't say anything false. You state the benefits and features of your particular brand of knife. However, since you used a happy cartoon did you imply that the knives were safe, or designed, for children? That would be bad, hence Joe Camel. These cases are the reasons we have courts.

And, as I said before, there is always the agreement between the advertiser and the eyeball-seller. If the TV network doesn't want to run your ad, they don't have to sell eyeballs to you. If nobody wants to run your ad, oh well. Whether your ad is legal or not, it first depends on other people's willingness to air it. If your ad has a chance of being illegal, are they going to risk showing it? This is the good topic of discussion. Should the people who sell eyeballs be held responsible for what ads they run? If you're a radio station and just selling airtime to the highest bidder, should you get in trouble if one of those ads is fraudulent? Tough call. I have an answer, but let's hear what you say first.

Jason

TV networks cannot by law decline to run political ads, regardless of content. They must offer equal ad time to all candidates. The laws governing this were put into place for the same reason as net neutrality - to make sure Fox couldn't run only right-wing ads, or ABC couldn't run all left-wing ads. So the TV stations were stripped of free speech and content control. What do you think?

Apreche

TV networks cannot by law decline to run political ads, regardless of content. They must offer equal ad time to all candidates. The laws governing this were put into place for the same reason as net neutrality - to make sure Fox couldn't run only right-wing ads, or ABC couldn't run all left-wing ads. So the TV stations were stripped of free speech and content control. What do you think?

While I can see how it makes things more fair, I disagree with it. You should be allowed to air whatever you want. Also, they are definitely not giving equal air time to all candidates. There are so many candidates, so many parties and so many different time slots with different numbers of people watching. It is impossible to make sure everyone gets the fair share. Laws which can't be enforced shouldn't exist.

trogdor9

I think anybody who bases their decision on any sort of political ad should be shot. The fact that the ads still exist scares the shit out of me.

Jason

Trogdor's all about burninating the peasants. I concur.