--- title: 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line description: From 1964 to 2012. canonical: https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-07T19:34:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:45.264Z article:section: Politics og:title: 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line og:description: From 1964 to 2012. og:url: https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2c676b4391aef1d/6988780a428a9e3a5bcd0d67/campaign-ad-tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: campaign ad tout og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line twitter:description: From 1964 to 2012. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2c676b4391aef1d/6988780a428a9e3a5bcd0d67/campaign-ad-tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 7, 2016 7:34 PM UTC  by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 7, 2016 7:34 PM UTC It’s a presidential election year, which means negative ads will be coming to a television near you. That’s nothing new, of course. Political ads have been on television since Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign, and negative ads since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 campaign, which used an image of a girl picking daisies to suggest that electing Barry Goldwater would lead to nuclear war. Even some positive ads have provoked controversy, such as George W. Bush’s 2004 ad, which was criticized by victims’ families for using imagery of Sept. 11. 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