VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Flurry of political ads frustrates Pennsylvania voters
Dillon Brendle: The clock is ticking and election day is just hours away. With the opening of the polls comes the end of most political ads. But the data shows most Americans will be happy to see them go. You’ve seen them nonstop for months. Ad-impact reports more than $2.5 billion were spent on presidential political ads this year. While the New York Times reports one political action committee has commissioned 655 ads since the vice president became the Democratic nominee. Here, Pennsylvania residents are increasingly frustrated with the tone of ads.
John Marshall: Still its constant, and its not what I can do its what they can’t do, which, I don’t like that.
Courtney Hunsberger: We want to know what policies are going to happen. As you look at even the debates, it’s just pointing fingers. And we’re not accomplishing anything with these conversations.
Brendle: The data says they’re not wrong. A study by the election graph project released last month says negative ads on Facebook and Instagram surged after the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Voters we spoke to say, with the negative tone, comes a lack of trust for the content of ads.
Marshall: It’s not like when I was younger. There has always been candidates coming up with things on the other side, digging stuff up, but it just seems a lot nastier.
Hunsberger: They’re just pulling bits and pieces of the other person or what’s been said and spinning it a certain way. And so there might be a tiny grain of truth to it its definitely being spun in a really politicized way.
Brendle: An Associated Press poll found only 9% of Americans believe campaign messages are usually based on facts.
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, Pa. (NCC News) — You’ve seen them nonstop for months. Election and political ads have taken over your TV screen, your neighbors lawn and the websites you visit.
A recent Ad-Impact report found more than $2.7 billion was spent on ads prior to the election. While the New York Times reported one political action committee commissioned 655 ads since the vice president became the Democratic nominee.
Some of the most frustrated voters are in battleground states like Pennsylvania.
“It’s constant and its not what I can do. Its what they can’t do.” John Marshall, a Pennsylvania voter said. “I don’t like that.”
“We want to know what policies are going to happen,” Courtney Hunsberger, another Pennsylvania voter said. “As you look at even the debates, it’s just pointing fingers. And we’re not accomplishing anything with these conversations.”
The data shows they’re not wrong. A study by the ElectionGraph project released last month found negative ads on Facebook and Instagram surged after the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The voters we spoke to say that with a negative tone comes a lack of trust for the content of ads.
“They’re just pulling bits and pieces of the other person or what’s been said and spinning it a certain way,” Hunsberger said. “And so there might be a tiny grain of truth to it. Its definitely being spun in a really politicized way.”
“It’s not like when I was younger,” Marshall said. “There has always been candidates coming up with things on the other side, digging stuff up, but it just seems a lot nastier.”
An Associated Press poll found only 9% of Americans believe campaign messages are usually based on facts.