Ad Wars: Best and Worst of the 2024 Campaigns

As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, political ads are flooding the airwaves with a staggering estimated spend of nearly $11 billion.

In an episode of ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ Laura and and Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, dissected some of the standout ads from both sides of the political spectrum, rating their effectiveness and impact.

Laura began by examining a recent ad from the Trump campaign, which prominently features the voice over of former President Ronald Reagan.

The ad asks viewers if they are better off now than they were four years ago and suggests that Donald Trump could be the solution to their current dissatisfaction. Schilling praised the ad’s nostalgic appeal, giving it an A-minus. 

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“It leads the viewers to a very obvious conclusion. We need someone in there, new, or at least someone in there that had things under control, a lot better than what we have now,” Schilling explained.

“So I give it an A minus. And and it’s only because it’s, it’s, you know, it could be a little bit better with the visuals, I think.

Turning to Kamala Harris, Ingraham reviewed a $50 million ad portraying her journey from a modest background to high political office. The ad highlights Harris’s rise from working at McDonald’s to becoming Vice President, emphasizing her determination and personal success. 

Schilling critiqued the ad for portraying Harris as an outsider despite her incumbency.

“She has to run as as a clean slate. Right. So if you notice in that ad, there are no images of Biden-Harris, there’s no Joe Biden in there. There’s no accomplishment. She’s running on in there, right. She wants basically a clean slate, but with all the benefits of incumbency. And that’s the message that she’s doing,” he said. 

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Despite Schilling’s conservative stance and his personal support for Trump, he acknowledged that the ad skillfully taps into themes of perseverance and the American dream, making it a notable piece in her campaign arsenal.

Lastly, the discussion turned to an ad from Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania. The ad criticizes Democratic leaders for their handling of recent social unrest and portrays them as weak and out of touch. Schilling rated McCormick’s ad an A-plus, commending its powerful portrayal of the Democratic opposition. He highlighted how the ad effectively underscores perceived failures and aligns with voter frustrations, particularly focusing on contentious issues like crime and privilege.

As the election cycle progresses, it will be interesting to see how these and other ads perform in capturing public attention and swaying voter sentiment.