Not too long ago, Kerry Healey’s “one of the three worst in the country” parking garage attack ad was the toast of her campaign. It was working, her strategists said — and furthermore, she herself said, it wasn’t a “negative ad” at all.
Healey’s media strategists decided yesterday to more than double the television airtime for her controversial ad that shows a woman walking through a dark garage …. “It is getting so much attention, and we think it is working, so we want to ratchet up the frequency,” said one of her senior strategists.
“I have always felt these weren’t negative ads. These were ads that presented negative information and important information,” Healey told reporters before one debate. “I believe that contrasts are never negative.”
Well, today, not so much. After four recent polls — six counting Zogby’s 10/19 and 10/31 online polls — unanimously showed Healey trailing Patrick by about 25 points and that the ad had driven her unfavorables through the roof, the tune has changed over at Healey HQ about how terrific the garage ad is. Suddenly, instead of boasting about the fact that the ad is “getting so much attention,” both she and Reed Hillman are complaining about all the attention the ad has gotten.
