Exposing negative campaigning or enhancing advertising effects: An experimental study of adwatch effects on voters' evaluations of candidates and their ads

Conventional campaign wisdom holds that political news coverage may define the content of political advertisements. Recently, however, political adver tisements have been shaping the content of the news. More and more, station s are conducting political adwatches in hopes of deterring against dishones t campaigning. In response, this study conducts an experimental examination of political adwatch effects on voters' perceptions of political candidate s and their ads. Results reveal that the way some adwatches are framed may further enhance the target ad's effects. Subjects had similar reactions to both the ad itself and the candidates regardless of exposure format (ad, ad watch, combination) according to cell, gender, or political affiliation. Mo reover, the sponsoring candidate received significantly more favorable eval uations when compared to those of his opponent (target candidate). Thus, th e attack ad worked to the sponsor's advantage as adwatch coverage failed to offset advertising effects. This study concludes that as political adwatch es are presented today, they may be doing more to enhance advertising effec ts than to expose negative campaigning.