Promises, promises and more promises. That is what political advertising is inadvertently all about and Barack Obama’s was no different. The difference lay in his spending power.
Since McCain chose to use federal funds (meaning tax payers’ monies) he only had US$84.1 million to his disposal. Obama on the other hand raised his own funds from innovative tactics such as new media and text messaging. The result was, as Evan Tracey of Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) put it, “There’s nothing Obama cannot afford to do.”
The main issues his 118 television adverts focused on were taxes, jobs, energy, environment, health care, and the most overriding of all, how to end the war with Iraq which was eating into the American coffers with malicious greed. A couple of biographical ads on Obama’s life story completed the collection.
Obama’s deep pockets allowed him to advertise in states that normally did not even see presidential election adverts, for example, Alaska and Montana. He could also afford to place national adverts during special events and prime times for maximum viewership. During the Super Bowl season, which coincided with the primaries, Obama bought ad space in 24 cities. The adverts were seen by 97.5 million people. His commercials in NBC and its cable networks’ 2-week broadcast of the Olympic Games cost him US$5 million and reached 25 million viewers.
His advertising budget on TV adverts was an estimated US$230 million, though CMAG puts the figure at US$250 million. According to TimesOnline he aired 1,342 ads in the Washington DC area during the first three weeks of September in comparison to McCain’s eight. In October, the final month before elections, his advertising reached heightened frenzies. He had an average of 7,700 commercials running per day at a month’s budget of US$100 million. There were simply not enough channels for Obama’s adverts and monies.
The real extent of Obama’s spending capabilities, however, came to its fore on 29 October 2008. For the first time, after 16 years, a White House hopeful placed a series of 30 minute adverts at an average cost of a million dollars apiece on seven US TV channels, including CBS, NBC and Fox.
Produced by media consultant, Mark Putnam, the carefully packaged infomercials did not bother to attack McCain as was the accepted norm for political advertising. Instead it focused on Obama’s plans for the country, human interest stories of the average American, and high profile testimonials. It ended with the line “I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy once again.”
It’s what the millions of Americans wanted to hear.
I think you did a great job in breaking down the Obama campaign and
then revealing insights into other U.S. campaigns. While this is a
tremendous victory for Obama, your blog shows that he was not alone in
making a presidential win.
Comment by Stacy Sneed — January 6, 2009 @ 12:23 pm |