Gore has been less successful, Davis said, at making himself seem less aloof, because his ads often feature him speaking on stages away from the crowds rather than in the midst of the people.

As Strother pointed out, while the Republicans often have higher production quality for their ads, the Democrats usually surpass their opponents in quantity of ads aired.

He further noted that one crucial omission from the ads of either party was college students. No college students were seen in any ad of the candidates, he said, because their low turnout rates have deemed them an inefficient demographic to target.

A new trend, Davis said, is the use of newspaper headlines in commercial spots, which has increased in this particular campaign because polls have indicated that the majority of Americans feel that claims of individual candidates are no longer seen as completely viable without news accounts to corroborate their facts.

The quest for accuracy in examples has also become a concern, Davis said, especially for Gore, who he said has recently misrepresented details when using specific constituents as examples.

"Bush was looking for Gore to cross the line on trust and exaggeration," Davis said. "He handed it to him on a silver platter."

Accuracy has become a particular problem because a disproportionate amount of discourse in this particular campaign has been about complicated fiscal policy. These explanations and conflicting counter-explanations, they said, have left the average voter more bored than inspired.

"Because of the lack of creativity, the results of the election will come out exactly the same as if there had been no money spent on these slots at all," Strother said.