The Willie Horton ad was successful in bashing Michael Dukakis during the 1988 Persidential Election by the use of loaded words and diction and fear mongering to pursuade American citizens to vote against the Democratic Dukakis and in favor of Bush and the Republican party.
The ad first states that Dukakis allowed hardened criminals and murderers "weekend passes" from prison. in the way this was presented, it gave the impression that any random murderer could just walk out of prison just as easy as you can buy a pass to Six Flags. This statement is soon followed by the story of Willie Horton while the words "kidnapping", "stabbing", and "raping" are displayed on screen. By showing these negative words that have strong implied connotations, it makes it seem as if Dukakis supports the idea of prisoners being able to just walk out of prison for the weekend, which is ment to strike fear in the heart of all americans.
this brings us to the next rhetorical device of fear mongering. this technique is effectively used to influence americans to vote against Dukakis. this ad successfully scares americans in to thinking that if Dukakis is voted president, he wil allow murderers and rapists free access to the world inorder that they might commit even more crimes.
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