# Political Ads Hub Master index for **ads** — individual advertisements and ad campaigns recorded as artifacts. The unit of record here is **the ad itself**: what it showed, who made it, who paid, where and when it ran, who objected, and what happened afterward. Most ads are forgotten the week they stop running. The ones collected here are the exceptions: the ad **was the news**, or it became the template later campaigns copied. Each page says who the sponsor was and, where fact-checkers, public records or regulators weighed in on the ad's claims, what they found. This hub sits under the [[Media Hub]], beside the [[Social Posts Hub]] and the [[Memes Hub]]. --- ## Chronological index | First aired | Ad | Paid for by | Aimed at | Why it was the news | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1964-09-07 | [[Daisy Ad]] | Democratic National Committee, for [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] | [[Barry Goldwater]] | A girl, a countdown, a mushroom cloud. Aired once, never named its target, replayed free on the news | | 1984-09-17 | [[Morning in America]] | [[Ronald Reagan]]'s campaign | [[Walter Mondale]], unnamed | Sunrise, a wedding, a calm voice. The positive ad every later one is measured against | | 1988-09-21 | [[Willie Horton]] | An outside political action committee, then the Bush campaign | [[Michael Dukakis]] | A Black prisoner's mugshot as the face of an opponent's record; the outside group did what the campaign would not | | 1988-10 | [[Dukakis Tank Ad]] | [[George H.W. Bush]]'s campaign | [[Michael Dukakis]] | The opponent's own photo opportunity, replayed under a list of weapons he supposedly opposed | | 1990-10-29 | [[Hands Ad]] | [[Jesse Helms]]'s campaign | [[Harvey Gantt]] | White hands crumple a rejection letter; the narrator blames a "racial quota." Helms was behind, and won | | 1993-09-08 | [[Harry and Louise]] | The health insurers' trade association | The Clinton health care plan | A fictional couple at a kitchen table. The first national issue-ad campaign by an industry against a bill | | 2004-08-05 | [[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Ads]] | [[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth]], funded mainly by three Texas donors | [[John Kerry]] | Fellow veterans called a decorated veteran a liar; contradicted by Navy records; gave politics the word [[Swiftboating]] | | 2008-02-29 | [[3 AM Ad]] | [[Hillary Clinton]]'s campaign | [[Barack Obama]], unnamed | A ringing phone and sleeping children; a fear ad run inside a party primary | | 2010-02-03 | [[Demon Sheep]] | [[Carly Fiorina]]'s campaign | [[Tom Campbell]] | A man in a sheep costume with glowing red eyes. Never aired on television, seen everywhere | | 2024-09-20 | [[Kamala Is for They Them Ad]] | [[Donald Trump]]'s campaign | [[Kamala Harris]] | "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you." Never answered; reused across the 2026 midterms | | 2026-09-26 | [[Final Battle Ad Campaign]] | The U.S. government | none named | A near-copy of a Trump campaign video, aired during football with the line "Paid for by the U.S. Government" | | 2026-10-19 | [[Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Amy Acton's Mother]] | [[Vivek Ramaswamy]]'s campaign | [[Amy Acton]] | An estranged mother on camera against her daughter; Ohio's Republican governor asked for it to come down | --- ## By pattern ### Fear without a claim An ad that asserts nothing checkable and lets the audience fill in the meaning. - [[Daisy Ad]] — the original. There is no statement about Goldwater anywhere in it - [[3 AM Ad]] — the same method inside a Democratic primary: a question, a ringing phone, no claim to check ### The positive ad that is also a comparison - [[Morning in America]] — names no opponent and says nothing negative, and ends by asking why anyone would go back ### The opponent supplies the footage - [[Dukakis Tank Ad]] — the Dukakis campaign staged the tank ride; the Bush campaign only added the narration - [[Kamala Is for They Them Ad]] — built on video of the candidate's own 2019 answer ### The racial appeal Ads that put race at the center while leaving their makers room to say they were about something else. See [[Dog Whistle]]. - [[Willie Horton]] — crime as the stated subject, a mugshot as the message - [[Hands Ad]] — the word "minority" said aloud; defended as an argument about fairness ### The wedge An ad about a subject chosen because it splits the other side's coalition. See [[Wedge Issue]]. - [[Hands Ad]] — affirmative action, 1990 - [[Kamala Is for They Them Ad]] — transgender prisoners, 2024, and the format Republicans carried into 2026 ### The outside group does what the campaign won't The attack comes from a legally separate sponsor, so the candidate who benefits can keep a distance. This is [[Plausible Deniability]] as a business model, and it scaled with each change in campaign-finance law: political action committees in 1988, the [[527 Organization]] in 2004, [[Super PACs]] after [[Citizens United v. FEC]]. - [[Willie Horton]] — the outside group showed the mugshot; the campaign's own ad never named him - [[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Ads]] — a small buy in three states that took over a month of a presidential race ### Attacking a strength - [[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Ads]] — aimed at the war record John Kerry was running on - [[Swiftboating]] — the word the tactic left behind ### The industry speaks as a neighbor No candidate and no election: a business lobby advertising to the public against a bill. - [[Harry and Louise]] — the health insurers against the Clinton health plan, 1993-94. A study at the time found it moved Washington more than it moved the public ### Built to be shared, not aired - [[Demon Sheep]] — a web video made for under $15,000 whose strangeness did the distribution ### Who is paying Most of these pages turn on what the ad said. A few turn on whose money it was. - [[Final Battle Ad Campaign]] — campaign-style advertising paid for from public funds - [[Harry and Louise]] — an industry speaking through a fictional couple ### The backfire An attack ad that became a problem for the side that ran it. - [[Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Amy Acton's Mother]] — condemned by the candidate's own party leaders in Ohio, defended by the president, off the air in ten days --- ## What to look for on an ad page - **Who paid.** The sponsor on the disclosure line, and the donors behind the sponsor when the sponsor is a shell. - **Who made it.** The same few consultants turn up across decades. [[Roger Ailes]] ran the Bush campaign's 1988 advertising, including the Horton and tank ads; the firm behind the tank ad made the Swift Boat ads; [[Chris LaCivita]] made the 2004 Swift Boat ads and co-managed [[Donald Trump]]'s 2024 campaign, which ran the "they/them" ads. - **How little it cost.** The most consequential ads here had small paid runs. News coverage delivered the audience. - **What the record said.** Whether the ad's claims held up, and whether any penalty arrived before the election or years after it. - **Whether it worked.** Several of these ads are remembered as decisive. Where researchers measured the effect, as with [[Harry and Louise]] and the "they/them" ads, the answer was less clear than the legend. --- ## Related - [[Hatchet Man]] — the operative who delivers the attack so the principal does not have to - [[Dog Whistle]] · [[Southern Strategy]] · [[White Grievance]] · [[Wedge Issue]] — the appeals several of these ads rely on - [[Dirty Tricks]] · [[Whisper Campaign]] — the unadvertised side of the same work - [[Independent Expenditure]] · [[Dark Money]] · [[Campaign Finance Hub]] — how outside ads are paid for - [[Lobbying]] · [[Astroturfing]] — where issue advertising by industries belongs - [[Propaganda]] · [[Media Ecosystem]]