WTF is up with all of this doom-like music in political ads made mostly by RW nutjobs?!?!

[Crowman1979]

It's about a god-awful as the tear-jerking sappy piano music that ESPN uses during sports player documentaries.

[DBoon]

1. They've discovered the goth demographic? (nt)

[liberalla]

2. Isn't it standard fare when they're trying to warn and scare you?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fishwax]

4. typical attempt to inspire fear

that's all the wingers have, really ...

[Posteritatis]

5. It's a pretty standard negative-advertising trick

Definitely not exclusive to the Republicans either; I've seen it in Democratic ads, all the major parties in Canada like to use it, and so on the world over.

I read an (excellent) book a couple of years back called Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner; one of the chapters in it was largely devoted to that specific trick and how/why it works. I recommend it on principle to anyone who's worried about how we interpret fear/risk/etc these days, but it also directly addresses your question in detail.