Positive and Negative Advertisements, Enthusiasm Gap

Positive and Negative Advertisements
In English-language countries, positive ads (advertisements) and negative ads describe ads that are either a) ads that are positive about the candidate the advertisement is meant to support, or b) ads that are negative about the candidate's opponent, tearing the opponent down with insults and attacks.

Example: In American politics, candidates who are safely ahead usually air positive ads that advertise their own achievements and virtues. Candidates who are threatened have, in recent years, aired large amounts of negative ads attacking their opponents as morally, intellectually, and politically flawed persons who are not deserving of being elected.
Negative ads have raised the general level of cynicism about politics. This is the context in which they are described in the Western media.


Enthusiasm Gap
An enthusiasm gap is an idiom that has been created in American media and politics to describe a difference in the enthusiasm between supporters of two rival factions, mainly political parties.

Example: In 2008, voter enthusiasm was greatest among natural supporters of the Democratic Party and voters for Barack Obama. In contrast, the 2010 mid-term elections have, by all appearances, a large enthusiasm gap favoring the Republican Party as Obama's "hope and change" campaign has disappointed the expectations of many of his own 2008 voters.

➤ Read more idioms and phrases, English grammar and vocabulary at Basic English Grammar And Vocabulary .