The 19 greatest and worst presidential campaign ads of the 2020 election

(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

last updated 26 October 2020

No one really knows for sure if campaign ads work, but there's no denying their venerated spot in American politics. From the oft-imitated Ronald Reagan "Morning In America" ad from 1984 to Lyndon B. Johnson's terrifying "Daisy Girl" ad from 1964 — which involves the suggested nuking of a toddler — presidential ads can run the gamut from inspiring to trollish, from tear-jerkers to grotesquely manipulative.

In 2020, the presidential candidates alone are expected to spend a combined $2.75 billion or more on TV ads by Nov. 3, though most of that will be by Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who has "maintained a nearly 2-to-1 advantage on the airwaves for months," The New York Times reports. Cash-strapped Trump, notably, has spent the past several weeks retreating from the up-for-grabs states of Ohio, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

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Designed to look like a horror movie trailer, the video was part of a massive Trump campaign blitz on YouTube this summer, and includes deceptively-edited footage of Biden that attempts to promote the president's narrative that his opponent is in cognitive decline. It's also … needlessly terrifying? The ad clearly functions as more of a wink to Trump's core supporters than something that might change anybody's vote, but has the side effect of giving anyone who stumbles onto it horrible nightmares. Final score: F

Like "Inspired By Actual Events," this is a troll move, intended to entertain Trump's base. But "the thing about trolling, and the thing about being kind of successful in it, is you actually have to troll somebody about something that's a vulnerability,'" explained former White House rapid response director Tanya Somanader in Crooked Media's "Campaign Experts React to Good and Bad 2020 Ads" series. "This is trying to land the message that somehow Joe Biden is bringing all these leftists with him," she went on, adding: "People don't believe this about Joe Biden." Final score: F

Speaking of trying to come across as cool, Biden's "Blind Pig" ad almost manages it. The ad, which aired nationally on CBS during the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, uses music by the Breeders, the Pixies, and — for the first time ever in a political ad — the Beastie Boys. It also features Joe Malcoun, the co-owner of the historic Blind Pig club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who says Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis forced the venue to close its doors. "My only hope for my family and for this business and my community is that Joe Biden wins this election," he says.

The ad has faced pushback from some conservatives, who point out that it's the state's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who is responsible for the continued shutdown of bars, not Trump, who has pushed to reopen the country. That doesn't invalidate the message in the ad — if Trump had been successful in getting on top of the crisis in the first place, or had more robustly helped small businesses, none of this would be happening — but that doesn't get finessed out in such a way as to prevent the criticism.

The ad notably ends with a shot of Biden kneeling in front of Black leaders during a visit to the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware, shortly after the murder of George Floyd. "Asked whether the ad meant to suggest there was something unsafe about Black churches or meeting with Black leaders in a church, Trump campaign deputy national press secretary Samantha Zager replied, 'That's absurd and it's shameful to even make the allegation,'" Religion News Service reported, going on to quote a Twitter user who argued that it sure still seems from this ad "is based on a single idea: Fear Black people." Final score: D-

Aside from Biden geeking out over his car, the ad functions to push a surprising environmental message, with Biden explaining, "I believe we can own the 21st-century market again by moving to electric vehicles." He also mentions (leaks?) that he's been told that GM is making an all-electric Corvette "that can go 200 mph." If that's true, it isn't public information yet: "I don't know who 'they' are who told him that, but we don't have any news about any new electric Corvette," a GM spokeswoman told The Detroit Free Press. Final score: D+

This ad is technically titled "Break In," although I prefer the title "Let's Scare Grandma." The ad aired in swing-markets like Orlando, Tampa, and Cincinnati during shows like Judge Judy, Jeopardy!, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Bloomberg reports, and belongs to a part of an effort by the Trump campaign to suggest that Biden supposedly supports policies that will make seniors' 911 calls go unanswered (a similar ad, "911 Call," even preposterously suggests that the wait time would be "five days.")

Timed to overlap with the Democratic National Convention, "What Happened to Joe Biden" was promoted in "prime internet real estate" on YouTube and Fox News, Axios reports, costing the campaign in the "high seven figures." The ad attempts to attack Biden's mental faculties, comparing clips of him from 2015 and 2016 to clips from 2020. Axios goes on to call it "the harshest president campaign attack in what is shaping up to be an even uglier messaging year than 2016."

The ad, like Trump's law-and-order campaigns, seems also to almost function like a smokescreen or redirection of criticisms aimed at the president. Over the summer, for example, Trump had to defend himself against rumors that he'd been hospitalized last year for "a series of mini-strokes," and his decision to brag about the results of his cognitive test drew mockery after Fox News anchor Chris Wallace pointed out that "it's not the hardest test. It shows a picture and it says, 'what's that,' and it's an elephant." Final score: C+

The problem with this ad, though, is that it might be too soft. While everyone hates negative attack ads, the reason they're so prevalent is that they seem to work: "Negative information is more memorable than positive — just think how clearly you remember an insult," CNN points out. While that doesn't mean there can't be powerful positive ads (in fact, we're about to see several in the Top 10), this ad feels more like it's designed to give Trump voters permission to vote for Biden, which might not be quite the right approach in such a deeply divisive and emotional election. Final score: B-

This video is straight out of a parallel universe that I wish I was living in: by no stretch of the imagination is America "recovering" from the coronavirus right now. Still, it's a seductive vision of a nation on the up-and-up, and a rare Trump spot touting his (vague) plans for the country's recovery. The ad also uses footage of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is incredibly popular with the public, saying, "I can't imagine that … anybody could be doing more."

Credit where it's due, this ad is not false advertising! It leans into President Trump's reputation as a bully, and smartly sells his more abrasive qualities as being an asset for the country — rather than attempting what would surely only be a futile clean-up job of the president's personality otherwise. Some of the best Trump ads in 2016 did the same thing, boosting the then-candidate's unconventionality, and this feels very much in the same vein.

This spot was cut in February, prior to Biden becoming the presidential nominee, but at a time when the campaign was already squaring up against Trump — Miracle on the Hudson Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, in his endorsement of Biden, speaks with first-hand knowledge about how "experience" in one's field can be a matter of "life and death," in what is a clear dig at Trump's outsider appeal contrasted with Biden's long career in Washington.

Even if you know the bare minimum about Biden, you still probably are aware of his heartbreaking familial losses — and his love of Amtrak. This ad leverages both; as NBC News explains, "Biden and his campaign have long pointed to his sense of empathy following numerous tragic losses in his life as a way for the former vice president connects with voters suffering personal and economic losses due to the coronavirus pandemic."

Narrated by Westworld actor Jeffrey Wright, the ad succinctly tells a story about Biden's long commute from Delaware to D.C., concluding that "people in Washington didn't get why Joe Biden would travel all that way. But in neighborhoods all over this country, there's no distance parents won't go for their kids. When Joe Biden traveled those four hours, he wasn't just going home for his kids, he was going to work for them too, just like he will for yours." Hey, who's chopping onions? Final score: A-

Another ad from the Before Times, "President Trump Got It Done" aired during the Super Bowl in February and featured Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old Black woman whose life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction was commuted by Trump in June 2018 at the urging of Kim Kardashian West. "Thanks to President Trump, people like Alice are getting a second chance," the on-screen text reads, followed by footage of Johnson saying, "My heart is just bursting with gratitude. I want to thank President Donald John Trump."

The ad was reportedly an effort by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to boost the president's numbers with Black voters, who overwhelmingly dislike the president. But while that might have been a bust in the long run, the ad could also have the potentially more meaningful effect "of reassuring white suburban women, a worrisome demographic for the campaign, that the president is not racist," The New York Times reports.

It appears, anyway, that it worked to some degree: the Times adds that "data indicated that online, the ad featuring Ms. Johnson was the most talked about one of the game, and that most of the chatter around it was positive." A YouGov snap poll likewise found that 74 percent of people viewed the ad positively, and that it boosted the president's favorability rating from 9 to 14 percent among Democrats, from 42 to 50 percent among Independents, and from 91 to 94 percent among Republicans. Final score: A

While the phrase "the best is yet to come" has since been branded in voters' minds by Kimberly Guilfoyle screaming it at viewers of the Republican National Convention, Trump's "The Best Is Yet to Come" ad from July showcases his strength when he commits to positive messaging. The ad itself is fairly straightforward, using the president's Fourth of July speech over stock footage of America, but it tugs on patriotic heartstrings without the doom-and-gloom of Biden's messaging. "Centuries from now, our legacy will be the cities we built, the champions we forged, the good that we did, and the monuments we created," Trump proclaims. "America's destiny is in our sights. America's heroes are embedded in our hearts. America's future is in our hands, and ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come."

It feels almost like cheating to have Sam Elliott be the voice of your political ad. Biden's final appeal to Americans, "Go From There," premiered during the first game of the World Series, and uses a voice-over by Elliott as well as a piano rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to deliver the message that "there is so much we can do if we choose to take on problems and not each other, and choose a president who brings out our best. Joe Biden doesn't need everyone in this country to always agree. Just to agree that we love this country."

Notably, writes The Week's Peter Weber, "not mentioned in the ad is the current president of the United States." The New York Times compared the spot to Bernie Sanders' 2016 ad "America," which made voters the happiest of any campaign spot in that election cycle, and called it "emblematic of Mr. Biden's core closing strategy — projecting an image of decency, reunification and optimism — as President Trump continues to go scorched earth on his political opponents, Republican dissenters, and the media." (Lest we forget "The Bidening" exists! Shudder).

If Trump's trolling mostly fell flat this election cycle, Joe Biden offered a masterclass with this 10 second ad that uses nothing but Trump's own words. The ad resonates because it speaks to the fact that the majority of Americans don't think Trump should tweet, and a mere 27 percent of voters are "proud" he's their leader. But it's also really, really funny — and sometimes, that's all a great ad requires. Final score: A+

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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