Negative Advertising

While watching TV last night, I saw a commercial for T-Mobile that basically said AT&T sucks and T-Mobile is awesome. I started thinking about the differences and similarities between ads like this and political ones that attack opponents. I mean, it was pretty smart of T-Mobile to take advantage of the negativity surrounding AT&T right now for their slow service, especially regarding iPhones, as a way to get consumers to switch providers. This tactic is something that politicians do all the time - identify a weakness in the competition, and display it to the world in hopes that a few voters will be convinced. I did a little searching and found an interesting article on how voters respond to negative advertising. It's weird to think about politicians using the same marketing strategies as cell phone providers and brands of paper towels and soft drinks...Here's the article and the T-Mobile commercial, as well as a few more examples of comparative advertising I found just for funzies:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/15/attack-ads/

http://www.youtube.com/user/tmobile?v=pczODHEO23I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDGORiD82rQ