Political Advertisements on Television

Are you sick and tired of seeing political advertisements taking over your television? Do not expect to see much relief from these advertisements. The political advertisements that have been displayed on televisions in states across the nation over the span of the past few months were just a small dose from the amount of political advertisements that are going to be featured on television within the few days leading up to November 6^th, which is Election Day. Ever since the 21^st of October, a total of 915,000 political advertisements have been displayed on the air. This was a total increase of 44.5 percent when compared to the amount of political advertisements that were displayed back in 2008 during the same exact period. That statistical information was provided by the Wesleyan Media Project. The difference between 2008 and 2012, aside from the spending, is the fact that most of the ads have been concentrated on very specific states.

According to the Vice President of strategic planning for TVB, Jack Poor, has said, “The battlefield is significantly smaller than 2008.” Poor also said, “At this time in 2008, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri and Indiana were in play.” The states that are currently being swamped with advertisements include Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Florida, Colorado, and several others. These states are currently doing all that they can to ensure they can accommodate the political advertisements. In the meantime, other states may be questioning if an election is even taking place due to the lack of advertisements on their television. During the first few months of October, there were 9,650 presidential advertisements displayed in Denver. The city of Las Vegas aired over 8,000 of these advertisements. Several other cities, including Miami, Tampa, and Orlando all aired over 7,000 political advertisements during that time frame.

Maribeth Papuga, the director for local broadcast at MediaVest, has said, “It still is not enough flexibility to meet volume demands.” Even the higher rates for advertisements have not discouraged these political buyers from spending money to have the advertisements displayed. In fact, Papuga says, “Some advertisers are paying five times what advertisers would normally pay to get on the air.” She also said, “It makes it difficult to determine pricing, then our clients get bumped.” Within the next two weeks, both political candidates are expected to make adjustments to their advertisement schedules in order to try to get as many votes as they possibly can at the very last moment. President Obama seems to be in the lead for now but things can drastically change in the matter of minutes.