What is Negative Advertising?

Negative advertising definition: negative advertising is a form of advertising that aims to highlight a competitor’s faults and degrade their message.

Negative advertising is popular in the political arena with candidates on all political sides promoting adverts that focus on opponents’ weaknesses and shortcomings

This type of advertising is less common in the corporate world but does exist; often in the form of satire or parody.

For example:

Apple used negative advertising in its “Get a Mac” campaign that comedically focused on the weaknesses of Microsoft’s operating systems:

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Popularity of the term Negative Advertising

Concept related to Negative Advertising

• Brandjacking
• Copywriting

Additional resources about Negative Advertising

• The Effects of Negative Advertising
• Negative political ads and their effect on voters: Updated collection of research
• Negative Advertising Law and Legal Definition