Study: Obama Commercials Excite Viewers to Vote Against Him

President Barack Obama has spent the campaign season trying to disqualify and tear down Mitt Romney, but a new study has found Obama’s commercials actually energize voters to vote against the President, not his opponent.

Evolving Strategies, a public opinion research firm, found GOP enthusiasm was 42 percent higher in 2012 than it was in 2008 for John McCain because “Democratic ads are goosing Republican enthusiasm.”

Adam Schaeffer of Evolving Strategies said his firm and Qualtrics “teamed to study reactions of 2,384 voters to seven political ads.” 

According to the study, “Obama ads helped the president increase his vote by 15 percent and pushed down Romney’s vote by 18 percent,” while Romney’s ads “did little to push the vote of Republicans or Democrats” and were “just plain ineffective.”

But Romney’s ads did not turn voters against him, while Obama’s commercials did. 

Here are the Obama ads that were tested: 

A Medicare ad accusing Romney and Ryan of wanting to gut Medicare.

An attack ad that rips Romney’s private sector experience at Bain. 

An ad that starts off quoting Romney saying, “This President cannot tell us that you’re better off today than when he took office.” The ad also says “millionaires should pay more,” reminding voters that they are not better off than they were four years ago and Obama wants to raise taxes.