Surprise hit of the campaign TV ad season: Permitting voters to go rogue in the US Elections

The advertisement opens with three older women sitting around a table in a diner, talking about threats to Israel and American Jews and Donald Trump. One admits she "never cared for" the former president. "But at least he'll keep us safe," she says.

The advertisement, produced by the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, is an example of one of the most striking advertising tactics of this campaign.

Going after their sceptics, both Democrats and Republicans are highlighting relatable characters offering measured testimonials -- even acknowledgments of the shortcomings of the candidates they are pitching -- to coax voters into crossing party lines. They implicitly speak to the reality that, in a polarized country where people are defined by their tribe, one of most difficult things is to step out of that box and vote against type.

It is intended to "create a permission structure," said Todd Harris, a Republican consultant. "In order for a message to sink in, you have to have people listening and paying attention."

The diner ad, for instance, tries to give Jewish voters, who are mostly Democrats, permission to vote for a Republican former president.

An ad from the group Vote Common Good, aimed at shy Harris supporters living in Trump households, shows a woman stepping into a voting booth with the reminder that her vote is private.

"The one place in America where women still have the right to choose," it says as the voter marks Harris on her ballot, a knowing smile flashing on her face. "What happens in the booth stays in the booth," the announcer adds.

Candidates often try to reach across party lines to expand their appeal. Campaign groups led by prominent members of the other party, or endorsements from a party-switcher, have been common over the decades -- from Nixon to Bush, from Clinton to Clinton.

But analysts said the proliferation of those targeted appeals this year -- and more significant, the way they have moved to the front of the stage, in the form of splashy advertisements -- was testimony to the challenges campaigns face in reaching audiences in this glutted and divided environment.

It also shows how tight the race for president is, where even a sliver of votes from, say, Jewish grandmothers in Philadelphia, could be critical. In the case of Trump, Republican analysts said, the hurdle is to appeal to voters who might be open to him based on his policies -- in this case, his unyielding support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- but are put off by his style and behavior on the campaign trail.

(Harris supporters, signaling the grandmothers ad's effectiveness, responded with their own digital ad, set in the same suburban deli, with familiar Jewish political faces, Republican and Democratic alike, saying they were voting for the vice president.)

"Our politics are so tribal," said Mike Murphy, a Republican consultant and ad maker. "The campaign is so marginalized people are trying to chip away at the edges. If you can take a historical Republican and get them simply not to vote for Trump, you take his number down by one vote. Get them to take the leap for Harris, and you move totals in the actual arithmetic by two."

Future Forward, a pro-Harris super political action committee, now routinely enlists Republicans to attest in its advertisements to why they are supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. "I voted for Trump twice, but I can't do it again," a voter says in one.

Bill Knapp, a Democratic ad producer working for Future Forward, said that "finding authentic and credible voices is more critical then ever."

"And to be credible, they have to share the 'message journey' of the viewer," he said.

One permission ad is targeted at supporters of abortion rights, seeking to address what has been a political liability for Trump. The former president opposes abortion rights, and takes credit for appointing Supreme Court justices to help overturn Roe v. Wade, the court decision guaranteeing a federal right to abortion.

"I've never voted for Trump," a woman wearing a purple sweater and sitting in a well-appointed living room, says in an ad from RBG PAC, a Republican super PAC that uses the initials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former liberal Supreme Court justice. Her family denounced the ad.

"But when he was president, life was a lot better," the woman goes on. "Freedom to choose is also important to me. And there's been a lot of talk about where he stands. But he has been clear. He does not support a federal abortion ban."

Although most of these ads have appeared in the race between Harris and Trump, some have also popped up in Senate races in swing states.

In Nebraska, an independent candidate, Dan Osborn, seeking to defeat the Republican incumbent, Sen. Deb Fischer, ran an advertisement inviting Republicans to step away from the party line and support him.

"Deb Fischer has more in common with Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump," a voter says in the ad.

In Maryland, a blue state where Harris is running strongly, the Republican candidate in the open Senate race, former Gov. Larry Hogan, has made an ad directly appealing to Harris voters to support a Republican for Senate.

The ad reminds voters that Hogan supports abortion rights and has a record of working across the aisle -- and it ends with a voter firmly placing a Hogan placard next to a Harris placard on her lawn.

"This isn't complicated," said the voter, identified as Rebecca of Rockville, Maryland. "I'm splitting my ticket: Harris and Hogan."