Ads Sell the Feeling

Most advertising is an appeal to emotion with a product attached. Watch what each one actually sells: a car ad sells freedom, not horsepower. An insurance ad sells the fear of losing everything, not the policy terms.

Politics runs the same play. "Think of the children" ends an argument before it starts, because anyone who pushes back now looks like they are against kids. That is moral outrage used as a weapon: question the policy and you seem like a bad person. The move works on any side.