Election talk is heating up. That means the dreaded political advertising campaigns are upon us. Attack ads (the ones we publicly revile) as well as those of the self-congratulatory nature will be targeting us via radio, television, the internet and, to a lesser extent, print.

The first shot off the bow? The Liberals soft sell of Mr. Ignatieff in English Canada and a more critical (of the Harper government) stance in French language ads running in Quebec.

The media and the bars will soon be abuzz with what seems like our age-old debate: Hard Sell vs. Soft Sell in election advertising.

I’ll keep my bias to myself, but for those of you chewing this over at some point, I thought you might appreciate a link to John Geer’s Attack Ad Hall of Fame.

Geer’s bias is decidedly in favour (he wrote a book called “In Defence of Negativity”), but wherever you sit on this, the ads he’s chosen to shortlist provide a quick lesson in what works and why.

If nothing else, watch the earliest known attack ad and answer me this: Is that the voice of Fred Flintstone flogging the GOP?