http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2016/low-opinion

This ad was produced by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election as an attack against Donald Trump.¹³ Like many attack ads, it uses clips of Trump’s own words against him, featuring lines he has said at rallies across the nation. Fielding Montgomery published an article that analyzes numerous ads from both parties during the 2016 election through the lens of horror framing. He breaks down ads and discusses how techniques commonly used in horror films are utilized by political campaigns to make viewers fear the opponent. However, for “Low Opinion,” Montgomery does not see any horror tactics, but rather sees it as “an example of a pure attack ad against Trump.”¹⁴ The ad starts with Trump saying “You can’t lead this nation if you have such a low opinion for its citizens.”¹⁵ It then features clips of Trump saying disparaging things about different groups of citizens. Despite not explicitly fitting with Montgomery’s horror narrative, the ad is “a continuation on the conflicted horror frame of Trump as misguided, rather than a completely evil other,” suggesting that political ad campaigns use individual ads as building blocks to portray a single, larger message about their opponent.¹⁶ 

13. Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2016/low-opinion (accessed December 12, 2019).

14. Montgomery, Fielding. “The Monstrous Election: Horror Framing in Televised Campaign Advertisements during the 2016 Presidential Election.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 22, no. 2 (2019): 281-321. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/728923.

15. Museum of the Moving Image.

16. Montgomery, Fielding. 292.