Cost of Candidates’ TV Advertising Tops $100 Million
Presidential candidates this cycle have spent more than $100 million on television advertising to date, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.
The study found that Democrats, who have raised more money this campaign season than their GOP counterparts, also shelled out more on the ad wars than Republicans. And all candidates have spent about $107 million on the roughly 150,000 ads that have run so far.
For Democrats, the ad value was $57 million. Barack Obama led the field, spending $23 million to Hillary Clinton’s $19 million.
For Republicans, the ad value was $50 million. Mitt Romney, a successful venture capitalist who has dropped millions of his own money on the campaign, accounted for more than half of that figure, spending $29 million on 35,000 ads. By contrast, John McCain clocked in second spending $8 million.
In their advertisements, Obama and Romney sought the most to portray themselves as the candidates of change: The word “change” was used in 37 percent of Obama’s ads and 29 percent of Romney’s ads, according to the study.
The study found over 90 percent of all ads were considered positive, and that the bulk of the ad budgets were spent on Iowa and New Hampshire, the two lead-off states in the primary season. Only $8 million has been spent on the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday states.
The data came from TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group.
End-of-year campaign finance reports filed Thursday further demonstrated that the Democrats are engaged in a far more expensive campaign than the Republicans.
The reports showed Clinton raised $107 million and spent $80 million in 2007, while Obama raised $102 million and spent $84.5 million.
Without his personal $35 million, Romney raised $54 million in 2007 and spent $88 million. McCain raised $37.5 million and spent $39 million. Mike Huckabee raised $9 million and spent $7 million.
youdecide08.foxnews.com |
