Vanhalen 0 Report post Posted July 20, 2004 Man, we arent even close to the election yet, and already theyve broken the record on election spending by any election George Bush and presidential rival John Kerry have already spent more money on TV advertising than any other candidates in US political history. And it appears that they are targeting different sexes, with the incumbent president favouring crime shows and his challenger opting to advertise during Oprah and other talkshows. Their budgets for political adverts during this year's US presidential campaign have already hit record levels - four months before the nation decides on who will be its new leader. In one of the most in-depth studies on presidential spending ever undertaken, Nielsen Monitor Plus and a research unit from the University of Wisconsin found that President Bush and Senator Kerry have already spent nearly £100m on TV ads. They also discovered that the lion's share is being spent in a handful of swing states, meaning that up to 60% of Americans may not have seen a political ad. Both candidates are spending heavily on adverts within news programmes, the 15-week survey into campaign spending patterns in America's 210 TV markets found. Over 42% of their adverts are booked for local new programmes. When advertising on networked shows such as ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today is taken into consideration, the figure leaps to over half of both campaign's total spend. In terms of late night exposure, pro-Bush adverts tended to dominate The Tonight Show With Jay Leno while Kerry favours rival David Letterman as the best place to reach and influence potential voters. The remaining funds tended to be split along gender lines, the survey reported. It found that President Bush's strategists favoured crime shows such as Law & Order in order to reach male voters, while Senator Kerry's marketing team look towards talkshows such as Oprah and The Ellen DeGeneres Show to target women. In terms of out and out hitting power, Bush leads Kerry - running more adds in all but a handful of markets. However, when ads from dissident, largely anti-Bush organisations such as MoveOn.org - "working to bring ordinary people back into politics" - are factored in, Kerry takes the lead. "The Kerry campaign and its allies are reaching voters more often than the Bush campaign in most of the top media markets in battleground states," said Ken Goldstein, the director of the University of Wisconsin advertising project. The report found that viewers' exposure to political ads was strongest in the key marginals such as Pennsylvania - which Bush lost by a whisker in 2000 - Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa, and, of course, Florida - the scene of a notorious recount in the last poll. It means that 60% of Americans have yet to be exposed to a political ad, as both sides adopt for a policy of leaving voters in "safe" seats until last. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted July 20, 2004 I don't have the stats on this -- oh why can't this place have a resident economist? -- but I'm sure each new set of elections outspends the previous ones. Back in 2000 it was OMG BUSH/GORE IS SPENDING MORE MONEY THAN EVER BEFORE -- WHY CAN'T THEY USE THAT MONEY TO FEED THE HOMELESS? It's just like when I hear about "box-office" record-breaking opening-day grosses -- part of it is because tickets cost so much... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
