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Campaign 'ads' not getting much air time
2008-09-17
WASHINGTON - Haven't seen all those negative presidential campaign ads the media are fussing over? Chances are you won't. Barack Obama's and John McCain's presidential campaigns are peddling campaign videos as advertising even though they are getting little commercial air time, a review of ads finds. The "ads" contain some of the most provocative claims by the campaigns and are designed to get widespread media attention without the expense of buying time to show them, says Evan Tracey, head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks ads. Since their party conventions, the two presidential campaigns have shown ads nearly 70,000 times in battleground states and on national cable and national network television at a total cost of more than $15 million. And while each campaign appears to be rolling out new ads at the rate of one or more a day, only four or five make up the bulk of the ads that television viewers see during commercial breaks. Two ads that have been repeatedly shown on cable news shows and analyzed in the press, for example, are one from McCain that criticizes Obama for supporting sex education for kindergartners and one from Obama depicting McCain as out of date, unable to use a computer or e-mail. Both have only been seen a few times, Tracey said. Tracey's firm uses elaborate computer technology to track commercials in all television markets. "It's getting just silly that the ads they are putting out are represented as real spots," Tracey said, noting that many of the videos are released in time to be displayed and discussed by cable news commentators. "You used to hide the harder edge message in radio and direct mail," Tracey said. "What you have now is that the campaigns say, 'Hey, (MSNBC's) Morning Joe is a food fight, let's supply the tomatoes.'" Spokesmen for both campaigns declined to discuss their ad placement decisions. "We just don't ever get into ad strategy on the record," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "I'm not going to comment on our ad strategy other than to say we make decisions that are in the strategic interest of our campaign," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. Such ads spread the perception that the two campaigns are running exceptionally negative campaigns. An analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found more of a mixed picture in looking at ads in the week after the conventions -- 56 percent of McCain's were aimed against Obama and 77 percent of Obama's were against McCain. Tracey said McCain is primarily running three ads. One, portraying himself and running mate Sarah Palin, has appeared nearly 11,000 times, he said. Another ad, criticizing Obama as a mere orator whose policy proposals will cost Americans money, has run about 17,000 times. Obama's most prevalent spot -- airing about 17,000 times -- links McCain to Bush and uses footage of McCain in asserting that he voted in support of President Bush policies 90 percent of the time.
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