Are Negative Attack Ads Effective?

For years, presidential candidates have been creating ads that make their opponents look bad. In the video (link)  below, “What Has Nixon Done?“, is basically Humphrey implying that career politician Richard Nixon has done nothing for his country and for the citizens of the United States of America. Even though Humphrey made all these attack ads towards Nixon, Nixon won the election. As for this election in the tough times of 1968, those attack ads weren’t as effective but today people view the media differently.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1968/whats-nixon-done

Currently, between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, there are attack ads being publicized. This link below shows Trump attacking Clinton for her e-mail scandals. During debates, Clinton answers the questions asked by the reporters/press, but Trump has a very vague short answer for everything and then goes back to attacking Clinton and making her look bad. Also, when Trump says something negative about Clinton, she keeps her calm. But, when Trump is attacked by a negative comment made from Clinton, he loses emotional control and keeps talking over her/everyone until he has the last word. In this election, I’m not quite sure if the negative ads are working because a lot of states have become swing states with divided voters and undecided voters.  Has the negative tone turned voters away?

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/09/30/trump-campaign-releases-new-anti-hillary-ad-ip.cnn

The candidates should be making more ads about what they will do for their country and how they will help the people and represent the people rather than having majority of their ads attacking their opponents and what they did wrong.  The media culture is everywhere and false claims can be sold as true.  Instead of pointing to more problems and negativity, our potential leaders should use the media to direct us towards solutions and a positive hope for the future.