Legal Commentary

New Obama Ad Spending Numbers Out

By Jeralyn

CNN says Obama's ad spending is not just record breaking, but record shattering:

Barack Obama has spent a record breaking $60 million to run more than 100,000 political television ads in pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, a new analysis conducted for CNN shows.

In contrast, John Kerry ran a little more than 19,000 TV ads four years ago in his successful bid for the Democratic nomination, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, CNN’s consultant on political television advertising spending.

Clinton, who trails Obama in fundraising by about $60 million, has run just over 60,000 TV ads in her bid for the White House.

In Pennsylvania, NC and Indiana...[More...]

In Pennsylvania, Obama has spent more than $3.6 million, while pouring another $600,000 into North Carolina and $800,000 into Indiana for TV ads, according to CMAG. So far, Clinton has spent $1.4 million in Pennsylvania, just under $200,000 in North Carolina and just recently went on the air in Indiana.

Questions I don't have an answer to: Do ads convince voters? Does blanketing the airwaves and internet with ads lend a sense of inevitability to his nomination? Will it get out the vote? Could it turn voters off?

Will some see it as an attempt to buy the election with dollars -- and in that sense, is it reminiscent of his trotting out Oprah to benefit from her unparalleled popularity? (On that note, while he got a big Oprah bounce, Oprah, it was recently revealed, has taken a big popularity beating. If Obama is elected, I suspect that will change and she'll be viewed as prescient.)

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).