<P> Attack ads continued to become the norm in political advertising . Ronald Reagan used them against Jimmy Carter during the United States presidential election, 1980 . It was also the first time that a family member was also used to attack the opposing candidate . One particular advertisement showed Nancy Reagan (Reagan's wife) accusing Carter of a weak foreign policy . This campaign also saw the rise of campaign finance issues when Reagan used political action committees to solicit funds on his behalf . However, in Reagan's reelection bid during the United States presidential election, 1984, the United States experienced the beginning of a different form of political advertising; one with a much more positive flow and a stronger, more powerful message . With the country in a relatively prosperous state, advertisements in support of Reagan evoked an emotional bond between the country and its president . Visions of Americans going about their daily lives with relative ease were compiled to convince America that voting against Reagan was a vote against prosperity . The positive and emotionally provocative ads proved more successful than negative attack ads . He was so highly successful that he won against Walter Mondale with a 49 to 1 state victory . </P> <P> In the United States presidential election, 1988, attack ads returned with a renewed vigor . George H.W. Bush used campaign ads that ridiculed his opponent Michael Dukakis, making him appear soft on crime . He contrasted these negative ads, with the emotional style commercial used by Ronald Reagan, to capitalize on his connection to the former president . Again borrowing from Reagan's campaign practices he used free publicity as often as possible, making sure he was photographed in various situations that were likely to be aired in the evening news . Although Michael Dukakis tried to discredit the Bush campaign in many ways, he was ultimately unsuccessful, losing to the former Vice President by thirty states . </P> <P> In modern times, elections have not only been manipulated by campaign ads, but by other factors as well . Social media has been one of the biggest components of what makes up modern campaigns . One very potent factor is what are called internet memes . This method may have some form of control from the candidate, but just like almost all social media, the end results are often not in the hands of the candidate . These internet memes where once knows to be simple little images with jokes but now have become means of transmitting political opinions, beliefs, and thoughts on our society . One very recent, high - profile example is the 2016 presidential election . According to a recent study conducted by Forbes, political memes containing the word "MAGA" (the political campaign slogan of presidential candidate Donald Trump "Make America Great Again") went from being mentioned once in January 2016, to 12,294 times in January 2017 with a 1,224,800% increase . Compared to other trends during that same period, it was one of the biggest growing tendencies . This also goes to show how such methods of political attack have changed and adapted so quickly . Internet memes also tend to favor a certain political candidate or party over another . In the same study, it was found that as the 2016 election date neared, there were more Internet political memes featuring presidential candidate Donald Trump than candidate Hillary Clinton . This indeed give Trump a free attention boost considering how such memes spread easily and fast across social media platforms in modern times . Also in general, it was shown as well that these memes tend to be "republican" conservative and such memes have also been seen to increase in a far more dramatic manner than such "democrat" memes . These new kinds of modern political cartoons are taking the world by storm as a new way of influencing political campaigns on the basis that they either glorify or demonize a specific candidate or party and spread this to a very large audience with little to no use of campaign funds . </P> <P> While there have been some increases in regulation of campaign finance in the United States, there is generally little regulation of political advertising content . The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 addressed the issue of "soft money" or money contributed through political action committees, raised the legal limits of hard money that could be raised for any candidate, and set limits on what funds could be spent on election broadcasts, but it did not mandate verifiability in political campaign advertising . As of this time, there is no pending legislation addressing this issue . </P>

Who is in charge of obtaining free advertising for a candidate