It doesn't matter where one stands. If you want to fight against, say, the people that run campaigns, you'll have to fight in their chosen arena, that of public oppinion and elections. It's empirically found effective to use "arguments as soldiers" in that arena. If we chose policies through a peer-reviewed search for truth, we wouldn't have this discussion.

But then it becomes a race to the bottom.

So I think you need some enforcement of standards, whether moral or legal.

And to enforce standards, you better win some elections, right ? And how are you going to win them ?