Best and worst political ads of 2012

>>> the ad spending this election season has been ridiculous. the latest figures from the ap say more than a million ads worth a billion dollars in mostly ten battleground states have aired from june 1st to today. that's 40% ads that ran during this election than during the 2008 election. here's what our next guest says were the top spots from both campaigns. from the obama camp.

>> there's just no quit in america, and you're seeing that right now. over 5 million new jobs, exports up 41%, home values rising. our auto industry , back. it's an honor to be your president, and i'm asking for your vote so together we can keep moving america forward .

>> well, it convinced me. and from the romney camp.

>> if you've been successful, you didn't get that on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people that think, wow, it must be because i was just so smart.

>> president obama attacks success, and therefore, under president obama we have less success and i will change that.

>> with us now is ad week magazine charlie warzel to give us a rundown on on the good, bad and big birdie in these ads. i think both ads you pulled are very effective. i particularly like the obama one.

>> that's weird.

>> that's me. i know, it's shocking. the obama campaign had another ad tha thought was really effective, particularly in ohio. let's take a look at that one.

>> we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for. just days later all three shiftishifts were to told to assemble in the warehouse. a group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired. mitt romney made over $100 million by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives. turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin.

>> i think that ad and ones like it help explain why the president has been able to hold onto his lead in ohio. it plays particularly well there. does the effectiveness of an ad depend in part on where it's played in the country?

>> i think it definitely does, and i think the big thing is you got to tell a story, a compelling story. you have to appeal to the emotions. the first two ads that i showed, they're almost like a friday night lights episode at their best. they really appeal to that heartland, that america, that hard-working family. and then you kind of go on the flipside with the priorities usa ad there, and it's just terrible what -- it makes you feel very bad and it portrays mitt romney in a very negative light. there's another priorities usa ad that sort of talks about closing on the steel plant and then the steelworker's wife got cancer. it's like passively blaming, which you know whether or not it's true, it has real emotional res nance with a bunch of people.

>> we showed some of the two best ones . you also rated two of the worst. obama 's big bird ad and romney 's jeep ad. let's play a quick part from both of those.

>> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who will build jeeps in china. mitt romney will fight for every american job.

>> the evil genius who towered over them? one man has the guts to speak his name.

>> big bird . big bird , big bird .

>> it's me, big bird .

>> big, yellow, a menace to our economy. mitt romney knows it's not wall street to worry about but sesame street .

>> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs.

>> mitt romney taking on our enemies no matter what.

>> that's funny.

>> i guess those are the worst because one is inaccurate and the other is ridiculous?

>> i saw the big bird ad during "snl," and i actually didn't know for the first second whether or not it was --

>> i believe you, charlie . it is absurd.

>> what's wrong with that?

>> it works in that we're all talking about it right now, and a lot of people were talking about. i also think that came after the first debate, and it's a little late to be so frivolous and flippant.

>> silly?

>> yeah. i think people are struggling in the country, and they want to hear the message. they want a plan laid out, and i don't know they want --

>> don't they want to laugh when they're down and out? don't they want a chuckle to make them feel better?

>> perhaps. hey, these strategists know a lot about how to reach people. it was effective, but i think a lot of people criticized it. i don't think you need to kind of get into that sort of privile frivolous place campaign.

>> you mentioned the super-pacs. you have outside groups with bottomless pockets floating the airwaves everywhere. you singled out two of the best super-pac ads, one pro- romney and one proobama. let's look at them first.

>> obama , obama , obama !

>> oh, yeah.

>> obama , obama , obama , obama .

>> whether mitt romney and bain closed the plant, i lost my health care , and my family lost their health care . a short time after that my wife became ill. that's when they found the cancer, and by then it was stage four. there was nothing they could do for her. and she passed away in 22 days. i do not think mitt romney realizes what he's done to anyone. i do not think mitt romney is concerned.

>> so you made reference to that obama one, a pro- obama one at the end there. my question about an ad like that and it's similar to a jeep one. he's taken a lot of blow back in the free press for that free ad and it's inaccurate. the pro- obama one was so inflammatory about causing his wife's death. i remember it being -- a considerable amount of blow-back to that one too. is that a risk with ads like this that it stirs up a lot of resentment through the press and say, it's not fair?

>> i think so. a the lot of people don't realize that those super-pac ads aren't directly connected to the candidat candidates. a lot of people get up in arms, how could you obama release an ad like that with dirty politics? that can hurt you in a way unforeseen about this cycle.

>> i love this ad. let's show that for a second.

>> the first time shouldn't be with just anybody. you want to do it with a great guy. it should be a guy with beautiful -- someone who really cares about and understanding women. a guy who cares whether you get health insurance and whether you get birth control. my first time voting was amazing. it was this line in the sand . before i was a girl. now i was a woman. i went to the polling station . i pulled back the curtain, and i voted for barack obama .

>> i find the ad very emotional, very direct. it gets at obama as this cool guy. it uses the celebrity and the pop culture icon in a good way. talks to the youth voters who respect lena dunham. she's not just saying i like the guy. there's real reasons she likes the guy. ? a good ad?

>> i think it's a good ad. people who may not -- we never use a celebrity. people who are not fans of that celebrity will come out. you're riding the coattails of that person. celebrity psas have been around forever. they've been ridiculous and good and effective. i don't think you can necessarily go wrong if you pick carefully and help craft the message. if you let a celebrity go off -- everybody knows --

>> the people who didn't like that ad or turned off are not voting for barack obama . i think it addressed the exact audience it was trying to.

>> charlie , thank you so much. up next, he backed president obama four years ago, but noes he's one of romney 's allies. former massachusetts governor bill weld joins us live right here in democracy plaza. that's