Surge protector

Yesterday I kept seeing an extravagant TV ad that disturbed and shocked me greatly.

It was like a political commercial, but it didn't directly endorse a party or candidate. The entire premise of this ad was (in so many words): "THE SURGE IS WORKING LOLOLOL!!!!!"

According to this ad, last year's Iraq War surge worked, and everybody (even those who oppose the war) agrees that it worked. This is a lie, of course.

I know advertising is supposed to be persuasive. But aren't there some sort of regulations against making blatantly false claims in ads (especially political ads)? TV stations have pulled political commercials over false claims.

For the record, the surge was a failure. The statistics bear this out. But the technique of the ad is to repeat a lie over and over again until people believe it. This propaganda technique works better than you might think. Even those who are adamant about certain facts start questioning their own competence when the media constantly bombards them with lies year after year.