Sunday, September 28, 2014

Ads Sting in New York Governor's Race

This article shows how the campaigns of Cuomo and Astorino have devolved into mudslinging. Astorino’s campaign has released an online advertisement titled “Unicorn Killer”. The advertisement is full of random imagery such as unicorns, Santa Claus, and Humpty Dumpty. It certainly grabs attention, but it is also quite childish, and seems inappropriate for an actual campaign. It was something I wouldn’t be surprised to see in our election simulation, but a real campaign? Although the real point of the advertisement was to point out that Cuomo had spread false information about Astorino, it appeared only in the last seconds of the advertisement.
Astorino’s advertisement was a good example of negative campaigning. This made me wonder why politicians bother with negative campaigning. After all, if you’re willing to stoop to low levels to damage your opponent’s reputation, aren’t you also tarnishing your own image?

Article:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/attack-ads-raise-temperature-in-cuomo-astorino-race-for-new-york-governor-1411005386?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj

5 comments:

  1. In an election as important as the race for the governor of New York, it is a shame that campaigning has regressed into childish videos for Astorino. There are certainly more professional ways to point out the fallacies and falsehoods in Cuomo's arguments.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This race seems to be digressing into a battle of who looks better. Negative campaigning just calls for more problems, drama, argument, and tension. The gubernatorial campaigns must not be bent completely on outrightly pointing out flaws in the other's campaign, but rather endorsing and supporting the issues and concerns at hand. I think both the people and the candidates would prefer to have someone they can call Governor rather than "Unicorn Killer".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mudslinging has been going on since America has started doing elections. In 1796, Alexander Hamilton used a fake name to accuse Jefferson of sleeping with his slave and being a coward. I think such a childish ad might not be the best approach but at least it was memorable and people are talking about it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Although this type of campaigning has been going on since the beginning of American politics it doesn't mean it should continue. I agree with Asmaaul and Stanley; As a future voter I would like to see candidates promoting their goals while in office, not pointless accusations that end up with voters even more confused.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with my peers. While negative campaigning and mudslinging has been around for a long time, it angers me a bit that politicians aren't focusing on communicating their policies to the voters, but rather are trying to create a negative reputation for their opponents (regardless of whether or not it's true).

    ReplyDelete