Former President Donald Trump and his allies have run an overwhelmingly negative ad campaign against Kamala Harris since she became the Democratic presidential nominee two months ago, according to advertising data.
That’s in stark contrast to the more complex approach that Harris and her allies have adopted to getting their message across.
Ad tracking firm AdImpact categorizes political advertisers’ broadcast TV ads by tone: “positive,” “negative” or “contrasting.” While some ads toe the line between negative attacks and hard-hitting contrasts, a broader division of each camp’s ad budget reveals their differing approaches.
According to the data, about 90% of Republican presidential ad spending over the past two months has gone to “negative” ads, which amounts to about $178 million out of $199 million. Additionally, Republicans spent about $21 million on “contrast ads” during the same period, which is about 10% of the party’s total advertising budget, while spending just $75,000 on “positive” ads, which is less than 1% of the party’s total TV ad spending.
In contrast, Democrats have devoted about 20% of their advertising budgets over the past two months to “negative” ads, the most to “contrast ads,” just over 40% to “positive” ads, and just under 40% to “positive” ads.
The messaging pattern spans both campaigns and their allies. Since Biden dropped out, the Trump campaign has spent about 70% of its ad spending on “negative” ads and about 30% on “contrast” ads. Pro-Trump outside groups have been even more biased, with “negative” ads making up 99% of their spending.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is devoting about 43% of its ad budget to “contrast” ads, about 39% to “positive” ads, and about 19% to “negative” ads. Outside groups supporting Harris are a little more negative, devoting about 39% to “contrast” ads, 40% to “positive” ads, and 21% to “negative” ads, but the overall trend is the same.
