Clinton Campaign Doubling Ad Spending in Final Days
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Hillary Clinton's campaign is more than doubling its ad spending in the final days leading up to the election. The campaign pouring an additional $18 million into advertising as polls show Clinton and Donald Trump locked in a tight race across several battleground states. The RNC is also getting into the game. It's putting up nearly $3 million in its first ad buy in support of Mr. Trump. But are these massive ad buys, well, do they pay off at all? Let's talk about that. I'm joined by Vanderbilt political science professor and negative ad expert John Greer. Welcome.</s>JOHN GEER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Thank you for having me.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So, you are an expert on these kinds of ads. And we've asked you to pick the most and least effective of the season.</s>GEER: Right.</s>COSTELLO: And you chose the Clinton ad "Mirrors" as one of the most effective. Let's watch part of it.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers. She's a slob. She ate like a pig. A person who's flat chested is very hard to be a ten. Does she have a good body? No. She has a fat --</s>COSTELLO: So, John, why is this ad effective?</s>GEER: Well, it's using Donald Trump's only words against him and it's playing to a theme about -- about young girls, and about the treatment of women. And so it resonates with people. And the basic reason it works is because it's not exaggerating. It's, in fact, troublingly so the truth.</s>COSTELLO: OK, so on the Trump side there's an ad spotlighting Hillary Clinton's deplorables comment. Let's watch.</s>GEER: Right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Speaking to wealthy donors, Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of Americans deplorable.</s>CLINTON: You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic --</s>COSTELLO: So -- so, John, why is this ad effective?</s>GEER: For the same reasons the other one was. Hillary Clinton did not, you know, do herself any favors with that comment about the deplorables, and the Trump campaign appropriately used it against it.</s>COSTELLO: OK, so I'm getting -- I'm detecting a theme here. So if you use the candidate's own words against them, that's the most effective kind of political ad?</s>GEER: Right. I mean and these -- this is why negative ads are important because there providing factual information, they're showing reasons that you might not want to vote for Trump or you might not want to vote for Hillary Clinton. This is information the public needs to know. And we happen to have two very unpopular candidates, so we're going to -- can expect a lot of negative ads and for those negative ads on average to be pretty effective if they tell the truth and hit on salient (ph) themes.</s>COSTELLO: OK, so now for the ads that weren't so effective. The Trump campaign tried to counter criticism about Trump's experience and temperament with an ad called "Speak."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a movement, not a campaign. Its leader, Donald Trump, builder, businessman, success. Doing what others called impossible. Donald Trump's priority? You. Dreaming big. Building bigger. United for family, jobs, country. Defined by freedom. Standing together. Pushing ahead. Leaving the past behind. Changing our future. Together, we'll make America great again.</s>COSTELLO: So, John, this is such an uplifting ad. Why isn't it effective?</s>GEER: Well, because the problem is, it's headed -- it's basically going into some serious cross winds. That is that Donald Trump is not perceived by the American public to be any of those things. He has very high unfavorables. And this ad is trying to paint a picture that's just not consistent with the evidence. And so, as a result, it backfires. And that's among the reasons why we have so many negative ads in this campaign because both candidates are unpopular.</s>COSTELLO: Interesting. OK, so here's one Clinton ad that didn't work. This was by a pro-Clinton PAC and the ad is called "Speak" and it also uses Trump's own words against him. Watch.</s>TRUMP: You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her, wherever. Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely. Do you like girls that are 5'1". They come up to you, they're where? If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. I view a person who is flat chested is --</s>COSTELLO: OK, so the "Mirrors" ad worked, so why wouldn't this one?</s>GEER: Well, this is really an interesting example because it is very similar theme to "Mirrors," but it's presented in a different way and I don't think that it comes across effectively. So it isn't just the message, it's the messenger that matters. And in this case, that ad didn't work very well. And I think on average, a lot of the third party ads aren't very good because they don't have direct contact with the candidates by law. And so the candidate ads themselves, they're directly tied to the campaign. They know the kind of themes they want to talk about. And so I think this is a really great example, but it isn't just the message, as I said. It's also the way the message is presented.</s>COSTELLO: So in these last five days leading up to the election, Hillary Clinton especially, her camp is releasing a barrage of ads in battleground states. And I would suspect most of them are negative. Is that a good strategy for her since the polls have tightened?</s>GEER: I think it's -- yes, I think it is a good strategy. I mean, everybody believes that all these ads make a difference. And if you air them in the battleground states, it should be able to turn some of -- some voters towards Clinton. The problem is that it's a four to one edge for Clinton right now in spending. That should make a difference. But this campaign has upended so much of conventional wisdom that maybe in fact that won't be the case. Maybe Trump's strategy of just trying to get free media coverage will carry the day. But Clinton has the money. These states are close. It's a good investment. And it's probably not the time to air positive messages because both candidates are unpopular. So keep reminding voters about why the other side is so bad and hopefully you'll get enough votes to carry an election.</s>COSTELLO: All right, John Geer, thank you so much for being with me this morning.</s>GEER: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: It all comes down to Tuesday. Election Day 2016. We'll have all-day coverage right here on CNN. And protesters and police clash outside of a Louisiana senate debate featuring Ku Klux Klan member David Duke. Protests outside the venue, an historically black college, turned rowdy as demonstrators tried to force their way inside, prompting police to begin pepper spraying students.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For no reason. She was just standing there.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They started releasing pepper spray. They sprayed a girl directly in the face with it. I was covered on my shirt, my arms, my face. There was pepper spraying</s>COSTELLO: In all, six people were placed under arrest. The group that organized the protest had requested the school excluded Duke from attending the debate. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, intense fighting inside Mosul right now with Iraqi forces enter the ISIS stronghold.