Telling voters that they'll die if they don't vote for you is a bad way to get elected. But it sure is a good way to get noticed.

Just ask Colorado congressman (and border-control fanatic) Tom Tancredo, whose new ad "Tough on Terror" went up on Iowa TV yesterday:

There's a hooded figure, a heartbeat, a ticking clock, a backpack, a shopping mall, scenes of bloody destruction in Europe, a stroller and, as the screen goes black, an explosion--plus the words "Tancredo...before it's too late." According to the voiceover, this is "the price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill."

Subtle, no. Effective? Depends. Alarmist advertising worked for Lyndon Johnson in 1964, when his campaign only had to air "Daisy"--a controversial ad that showed a little girl picking flower petals before an atomic blast--once to convince voters that they couldn't trust Barry Goldwater with nukes.

But 20 years later a similar spot, scored to "Teach Your Children Well" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, couldn't save Walter Mondale's hapless bid. 

So is Tancredo a Johnson or a Mondale? I'd say neither. Those guys were actually, you know, running for president. Tancredo is more interested in forcing the rest of the Republican party to the right on immigration. "We're trying to influence the debate by pressing this issue," spokesman Alan Moore told me this morning. "The best avenue for that is in the presidential election. Back in January and February, the campaigns never talked about illegal immigration. Now everybody's talking about it. We absolutely take credit for that. The only way to influence the other politicians in the race is to get the American people talking, and that's what we're doing with this ad." Even Tancredo admits that the "odds are very long" against him and he's "okay" with being a "bottom-tier" candidate.

On those terms, then, I'd declare "Tough on Terror" a success. Tancredo isn't trying to convince a majority of Republicans that he'd make the most reasonable president; he's trying to rile up a vocal, nativist, terror-obsessed minority. He can't count on the press to cover a candidate who polls within the margin of error. And with only $110,000 cash-on-hand at the end of last quarter, he can't afford to inundate the airwaves with ads. His only hope: saying something extreme.

Voila. Headlines--even negative ones like "Is Tancredo Too 'Tough on Terror'?" or "Tancredo Ad Plays Fear Card"--are now spreading Tancredo's message. New visitors are overwhelming teamtancredo.com (the campaign bought more bandwith to cope, according to Moore). The congressman himself has scored plum airtime on "Hannity and Colmes" tonight and Fox News and CNN tomorrow. And Stumper, the ultimate arbiter of all things political, has taken notice.

"My phone's been ringing off the hook," says Moore. "As I've been talking to you I've had three messages put in front of me. It's been really busy."

I guess that shows the ad is working?

"It's exactly the effect we were looking for."