All the advertising in the world is not going to make a frog into a prince. People respond to things personally--especially to things (like politics) that affect them directly.

In Washington DC, incumbent mayor Adrian Fenty lost the democratic primary to his opponent council member Vince Grey. Why? Partially because people preferred Grey, but in larger part, because people did not like Fenty's arrogance and leadership style. You can read an article in the Washington Post that further delves into this <a title="Washington Post" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091500834.html?hpid=topnews" target="_blank">here</a>.

Would you vote for someone you don't like? Probably not, even if he or she had the nicer ads, the flashier website.  My advice to political strategists is people respond to people they like more than to ads they like.