Negative Advertising: When the Going Gets Tough, the Ads Get Tougher

When it comes to political advertising, the more campaigns spend and the
more knowledge voters have, the more negative the advertising according
to a recent study coauthored by Mitchell J. Lovett, assistant professor
of marketing at the Simon Graduate School of Business, University of
Rochester, and Ron Shachar of Tel Aviv University and New York
University. In their paper, "The Seeds of Negativity: Knowledge and
Money," the co-authors studied more than 600 political campaigns and
found that the more media coverage and ad spending on a campaign, the
more negativity in the advertising. Competitiveness directly affects ad
negativity, but when you account for knowledge about the candidates and
campaign spending, the relationship goes away, Lovett says. When the
economy started to decline, more consumer brands went negative in their
advertising as well. Lovett speculates that when the going gets tough,
the ads get tougher.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• politics
• commercial
• Advertising
• Ads
• Commercial Broadcasting
• News
• elections
• University of Rochester
• Simon School
• campaigns
• Commercials
• Television Advertisement

[tarang09jain]

If one were to compare it to CPG/service industry, and plot consumer involvement on x axis and profit possibility for the manufacturer on y, one would see items like pet food, car insurance and sodas in the high-high area. And these represent products with a highly developed industry, with multiple competitors hence very competitive. So in conclusion, the more developed or evolved the category-politics or washing soap, the more aggressive hence negative the advertisements get. Prof Lovett agree?