Quote of note:

"Fear works," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a political advertising historian who is director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "It gets people's attention. And it prompts quick inferences and it diminishes analytical processing."

Bin Laden's Image Crops Up in Ads
Analysts say the move is risky for both parties. It reminds voters that the terrorist is still missing, but could also allude to a Bush strength.
By Nick Anderson
Times Staff Writer

September 28, 2004

WASHINGTON — He was Public Enemy No. 1 three years ago — "wanted dead or alive" — before receding from the spotlight when the United States invaded Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.

Now Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda henchmen are resurfacing in presidential campaign commercials, including a flurry of hard-hitting spots within the last week in battleground states.

President Bush and his Republican allies have used the terrorist images to paint Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts as a weak leader. A pro-Democratic group has used photographs of 15 Saudi-born hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 plot in advertisements that highlight ties between Bush and the Saudi royal family. The Democratic National Committee unveiled an ad Monday that suggests Bush slacked off the hunt for Bin Laden after he declared in September 2001 that he wanted the Al Qaeda leader killed or captured.