Do negative campaign ads work?

ATLANTA - There are just a few days to go until Election Day and candidates are revving up the attack ads, but do they work?

Candidates in Georgia are spending millions to cast a shadow on their opponents and win votes. Many voters, like Mary Jones, say that won’t work with them. 

"Do they work with me? No," Jones said. "It really doesn’t do anything for me."

Jones says she’s sick of negative ads. 

"It’s the same one over and over again. It doesn’t say anything new," Jones said. 

Mark Kimbrough says he finds relentless attacks ads draining.

"I’m tired of them. They’re constant and it’s just negativity on top of negativity." Kimbrough said. "One person saying this person’s bad that makes me good, and they’re just back-to-back-to-back."

David Schweidel, a Professor of Marketing at Emory’s Goizueta Business School says campaign ads are not likely persuade voters to switch sides. Instead, he says going negative revs up a candidate’s base.

"The reason we see so much negative advertising is that it works. Positive ads? They don’t move the needle. The way I do that isn’t going to be by winning over those undecideds. It’s going to be ‘I don’t want that other guy,’" said Schweidel. "You think about ads that evoke anger or ads that evoke fear. There’s anger over the economy, there’s anger over the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe vs. Wade. That’s something that gets people excited and that arousal translates into people showing up to vote."