If you’re tired of election ads and you suspect both sides are working you, you’re right. Political ads on every side use the same seven tricks. Below is each one, with examples from both parties or from neither, so you can watch the trick instead of the team.

I spent 30 years in marketing, and political ads use the same toolbox with higher stakes. At the end there’s one check that catches all seven, and it works best on the ads you agree with.

1. The dark makeover

The other candidate shows up in grainy black and white, often in slow motion, with tense music underneath. The candidate paying for the ad gets color and sunshine.

This has been tested. In 1998, during a governor’s race in Massachusetts, researchers showed voters the same negative ad in two versions. One was plain. The other added grainy black-and-white images and tense, clashing music. People who saw the dark version were 26 points more likely to back the candidate who ran the ad. It’s a both-sides study by design: both candidates were from the same party, and the researchers swapped their names between versions.

The move: watch the ad on mute and notice the color. Ask what it would feel like with normal footage and no music.

2. The clipped quote

Five seconds from a 40-minute speech, chosen so the person sounds like they meant something they didn’t.

The Washington Post’s fact checkers have a name for this one: isolation. They describe it as sharing a brief clip from a longer video in a way that tells a story that isn’t what actually happened. Ads on both sides do it every election cycle.

The move: find the minute before and the minute after, or longer, and watch that.

3. The vote that wasn’t

“She voted against veterans.” “He voted against lower drug prices.” Sometimes that’s true. Often the vote was on one enormous bill with hundreds of things packed into it.

Here’s a real one. At the end of 2020, Congress passed a spending bill that ran 5,593 pages, the longest bill it has ever passed. It had COVID relief, a year of government funding, a ban on most surprise medical bills, and much more. Members of both parties voted against it. Any one of those no votes could be turned into “voted against” almost anything in those pages.

The move: find the bill and ask what else was in it.

4. The midnight deadline

“Final notice.” “Give before midnight and your gift will be tripled.”

A team at Princeton read more than 100,000 campaign emails from more than 2,800 senders across the political spectrum. The typical sender used a manipulative trick in about four in ten of its emails, and almost every sender used them at least sometimes. Real reporting deadlines do exist, so not every date is invented.

The move: give when you’ve decided to give. There’ll always be another midnight tomorrow.

5. “Paid for by”

Every ad has to tell you who paid for it. The rule says the group has to give its name and contact information. It doesn’t make most groups tell you who gave them the money. So the name at the bottom often sounds like something everyone agrees with, like “Citizens for a Better Tomorrow” or “Americans for Common Sense.”

Money that hides its donors this way is called dark money, and both sides use it. In 2012, an estimated 86 percent of it was spent by conservative groups. In 2020, groups helping Democrats spent more than twice as much as groups helping Republicans.

The move: search the group’s name with the word “donors.” If you can’t find out who’s behind it, that tells you something too.

6. The borrowed badge

“Endorsed by firefighters.” “Teachers support her.” That could mean a national organization. It could also mean one local chapter, or a few people in a photo. The ad often doesn’t say which.

This is fine when it’s the full organization and the ad names it.

The move: ask which group, and how many.

7. The fear close

If they win, you lose. Both parties have run this ad for as long as there’s been television.

In 1964, a Democratic ad showed a little girl pulling petals off a flower while a voice counted down to a nuclear explosion. It ran once as a paid ad and ended with “The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” Twenty years later, a Republican ad showed a grizzly bear walking through the woods with a heartbeat under the music. It ended with “Isn’t it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?” One ad from each party, and both run on fear.

The move: ask exactly what would happen, and how. A real threat comes with a specific answer.

The check that catches all seven

I call it the Source Test, and the first move is the one from trick number one: watch it on mute. Then ask three questions.

Stake: who paid for this, and what do they get if I believe it?

Source: who checked it? Here’s something most people don’t know. TV stations aren’t allowed to edit or refuse a candidate’s own ad, even if it’s false. Nobody fact-checked it before it aired.

Steelman: what would the other side say this ad left out?

And here’s the real test. Run it on an ad for the side you already agree with. If you can only catch the tricks on one side, the tricks are still working on you.

Questions people ask

Do political ads have to be true?

Not in the way most people assume. Under federal law, TV stations aren’t allowed to edit or refuse a candidate’s own ad, even if it’s false, so nobody fact-checks it before it airs. That rule covers ads from a candidate’s own campaign. Ads from outside groups are a different case.

What is dark money in politics?

It’s political spending by groups that don’t have to say who gave them the money. An ad must name the group that paid, but most groups needn’t name donors. Both sides use it: an estimated 86 percent was spent by conservative groups in 2012, and Democratic-aligned groups outspent Republican-aligned ones more than two to one in 2020.

Why are political attack ads in black and white?

Grainy black-and-white footage and tense music make the other candidate feel threatening. In a 1998 Massachusetts experiment, voters who saw the dark version of the same negative ad were 26 points more likely to back the candidate who ran it. To check an ad, watch it on mute and imagine it with normal footage.

How can you tell if a political ad is misleading?

Run three questions. Who paid for this, and what do they get if I believe it? Who checked it? What would the other side say it left out? Then watch for the common tricks: grainy footage, short clips from long speeches, “voted against” claims about huge bills, and group names that sound like something everyone agrees with.

Why do campaign emails say “final notice” or “deadline tonight”?

Because urgency gets people to give. A Princeton team that read more than 100,000 campaign emails from 2,800-plus senders across the spectrum found the typical sender used a manipulative trick in about four in ten emails. Real reporting deadlines exist, but you can give whenever you’ve decided to.

Sources

• Brader, T. (2005). Striking a responsive chord: How political ads motivate and persuade voters by appealing to emotions. American Journal of Political Science 49(2), 388–405.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker (June 25, 2019). Seeing isn’t believing: The Fact Checker’s guide to manipulated video.
• Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (H.R. 133). Page count per the U.S. Senate Historical Office.
• Mathur, A., Wang, A., Schwemmer, C., Hamin, M., Stewart, B. M. & Narayanan, A. (2023). Manipulative tactics are the norm in political emails. Big Data & Society 10(1).
• Federal Election Commission. Advertising and disclaimers; 11 CFR 110.11.
• OpenSecrets. Dark money spending by political orientation (2012, 2020).
• The Living Room Candidate, Museum of the Moving Image. “Peace, Little Girl (Daisy)” (1964) and “Bear” (1984).
• Communications Act of 1934, Section 315 (47 U.S.C. 315).