For the 2024 presidential race, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump use campaign ads to highlight key issues while attacking each other’s campaigns and personalities. Campaign ads are created to influence voters by projecting a person’s strengths, policies, and leadership qualifications. Attack ads, in particular, focus on criticizing an opponent by speaking on weaknesses, scandals, or controversies. Since the 20th century, they have become a central part in elections for the U.S. given that there are more opportunities to spread information through social media.
The History of Political Attack Ads
Attack ads first began in 1964 during the Vietnam war and presidential election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Johnson came out with the first attack ad titled “Johnson’s Daisy Spot” where Johnson nudges against Goldwater’s past claims in which Goldwater advocated for the use of tactical weapons in Vietnam, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue,” said Goldwater. Although Johnson’s ad never specifically mentions Goldwater, it displays the dangers of nuclear warfare with a bomb explosion imploding on a little girl’s town as she and a man’s voice count down from one to ten. In the background, “These are the stakes: To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the darkness. We must either love each other, or we must die,” Johnson said in defiance to Goldwater.
Trump v. Harris
Currently in the 2024 presidential election, both Harris and Trump’s political campaigns have launched as of July. Trump’s recent political ads have aimed criticism at Harris, focusing on her role in immigration policy. In Trump’s ad “I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” he blames Harris for millions of people crossing the United States-Mexico border under her watch as Vice President, claiming her role was “border czar, and she’s failed us,” said the voiceover.
Trump’s ads also tie Harris to the ongoing fentanyl crisis, alleging that the states are losing 300,000 people a year to fentanyl that comes through the border. At a campaign rally in Charlotte NC on July 24, “We’re losing 300,000 people a year to fentanyl that comes through our border. We had it down to the lowest number, and now it’s worse than it’s ever been,” said Trump. His claim is yet another attack against Harris’s capabilities of protecting the people.
However, for the first time in decades, new CDC data from National surveys put together by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that between April 2023 and April 2024, overdose deaths declined by 10% which was under Harris’s Vice Presidency. In May, the CDC released data covering another decrease of 3% from 2022 to 2023. Provisional data estimated that the U.S. had 107,543 drug overdoses during 2023 and estimated that 111.029 deaths occurred in 2022.
On the other hand, Harris has centered her ads around eliminating Project 2025, lowering middle-class taxes, and restoring reproductive rights, using Trump’s past comments on abortion to criticize his stance.
On Sept. 6, Harris released “He Told Us | Harris-Walz 2024.” The ad uses clips of Trump stating that “there has to be some form of punishment” given to those who seek out abortion. The ad also makes claims about what Trump would do about abortion if he were to get back in office, stating Trump has “plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitoring women’s pregnancies,” said ad voiceover. It also explains that Trump’s plan could weaken civil rights protections while giving Trump unchecked political power.
However despite Harris’ warnings about “Trump’s 2025 Agenda,” he has claimed he will not use the conservative presidential transition document. Trump has stated “under my leadership the republican party will always support the creation of strong, healthy, and thriving families. We want to make it easier for mothers,” said Trump. Yet again, Trump admitted “for 54 years, they were trying to get Roe vs. Wade terminated and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.”
Harris is also using her campaign to appeal to middle class Americans by making herself seem like the more relatable candidate amongst the two. During a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Harris shares some of her childhood experience to voters, claiming she was “raised by a working mother. I had a summer job at McDonalds,” said Harris.
Informative yet misleading
Overall, these ads are informative, yet, they spread misleading information. Both candidates have been fact-checked multiple times after making misleading judgments. As a result, voters are reminded that each campaign is a strategy that has the intended goal to produce an optical illusion of what policies the candidate wants to be perceived as identifying with by voters.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed are those of the writer. These views may not represent those of the adviser; of the Trail staff as a whole; of the Trail’s advertisers; of the administration, faculty or staff of McIntosh High School; of Fayette County Public Schools or of the FCBOE School Board members.
