Art of the Attack Ad

How to go after your opponent - without having it blow up in your face

For a comparative or pure attack ad to be effective in a campaign, voters must view it as being fair. What's fair? In the context of partisan politics, with charges hurling back and forth, it's often hard to tell. But there are some rules of the road that campaigns can follow not only to make their ads appear to be fair but to make them, in fact, fair - and defensible - while still making them effective in terms of winning elections. To work, attacks - as with most campaign messages - need to be:

1. Believable.

Even if it's true, it won't be effective if voters don't think it's true. For …