Going Negative

This morning Politico reported that the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney is facing internal strife over whether or not to air negative political ads. Apparently, the Romney campaign has prepared ads that attack front-runner Rudy Giuliani. The campaign is uncertain whether running the ads would benefit the candidate.

I noticed that our current PR textbook, Public Relations Writing, counsels against using negative advertising. This section of the book, however, does not pose the question in light of a political campaign. Debate over whether negative advertising works has been a a constant of campaigns since John Adams battled Thomas Jefferson.

While many candidates try to remain only positive, inevitably either the campaign itself or a third-party will launch attacks. There have been a number of studies done to gauge effective the effectiveness of going negative. The studies have come down on both sides of the issue so there is no formula for determining when candidates should resort to negative ads. (See this paper for more in depth analysis).

I think it's good for Romney to be prepared to go negative on Guiliani but it's probably too early to actually air those ads. It's early in the campaign and Romney should try to maintain the squeaky clean image he has right now. Going negative is a risk, but it's worth taking if well-planned and executed.