Having said that, there's a difference between a slagging campaign and a reasoned attack. Ads like Demon Eyes don't work because there's no substance to them. But the Tories' Tax Bombshell ads in the 1992 election had real impact because they provided new information. The ads used figures calculated by the Conservative party to show how much Labour would have to raise taxes to pay for all its spending pledges. The CIM points to the memorability of political slogans as evidence that political advertising is more influential than we think.
Marketing campaigns can change people's attitudes.
The powerful drinking and driving campaigns by successive governments have changed public tolerance over the last two decades. Advertising has been an important influence in bringing about these changes, but voters are reluctant to concur that it can influence their political views. Powell says an early lesson he learned in advertising was the discrepancy between how people say it affects them and the influence it actually has. He was sent out to the supermarket to monitor people's buying habits. One elderly chap said he paid no attention whatsoever to advertising and was more than likely to do the opposite of what they were telling him to do.