Evolving Strategies and Qualtrics teamed to study reactions of 2,384 voters to seven political ads. They found that Obama ads helped the president increase his vote by 15 percent and pushed down Romney’s vote by 18 percent.

Romney’s ads, meanwhile, did little to push the vote of Republicans or Democrats. “They are just plain ineffective,” he said.

But more importantly, Schaeffer said that ads from both campaigns were jolting Republican enthusiasm. He told Secrets that the Obama ads especially irk GOP voters. As a result, the Romney and Obama ads have supercharged the enthusiasm of 2008 McCain voters, a huge boost for Romney.