--- ---  # 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line 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. Here’s a video look at seven controversial ads from past presidential elections. 7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/"},"headline":"7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line","datePublished":"2016-01-07T19:34:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:52:57.466Z","description":"From 1964 to 2012.","url":"https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/","keywords":["campaign ads","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2c676b4391aef1d/6988780a428a9e3a5bcd0d67/campaign-ad-tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2c676b4391aef1d/6988780a428a9e3a5bcd0d67/campaign-ad-tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"campaign ad tout","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/campaign-ads/","name":"campaign ads"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4171665/campaign-ads-attack-negative-controversy/","name":"7 Campaign Ads Voters Said Crossed the Line"}}]}] ```