NEW YORK, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Voter reaction to two U.S. campaign ads shows the most effective commercials are short, simple and direct, a polling company said Thursday.
Angus Reid Public Opinion surveyed reaction to a 31-second spot by Ben Quayle, who is running for Congress as a Republican in Arizona's 3rd District, and a 75-second Democratic National Committee ad knocking House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The Quayle commercial shows the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, wearing a tie but no jacket, calling President Obama "the worst president in history" and saying someone should "knock the hell out of" Washington. The DNC ad, which features sophisticated graphics and music, says Boehner "invented the ways of Washington" and includes video clips of the minority leader, including one from an NBC News interview.
Not surprisingly, Democratic and Republican voters had more positive reactions to ads from their respective parties. In the critical independent group, one-third called the Quayle ad true and honest while 46 percent said the DNC ad was deceiving and only 16 percent called it honest, while they split evenly at 21 percent each on its accuracy.
Angus Reid, based in Toronto, conducted the online survey of 1,007 members of its Springboard America panel Aug. 27-29. The margin of error for the entire sample is 3.1 percentage points.
