2008 Political Ad Spending
Presidential Candidates Raised Over $800 Million Through March 30
Record spending impacts television and internet. Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney led all candidates in spending. But is it a waste?
The 2008 presidential candidates have bought record amounts of television advertising, but were they wasting money? Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks they may have been doing so, at least in Pennsylvania.
"The public is paying close attention to this election and making extensive use of the Internet for political information. Both factors should reduce the effects of broadcast ads," she said.
At first glance that might seem like a concern for Senator Barrack Obama since he has devoted more millions to television commercials than either Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator John McCain. He outspent Clinton in Pennsylvania by more than 2-to-1and still lost badly. But Obama has been able to raise so much money, he can probably afford to waste some.
Obama Bought 40% of His Commercials in Prime Time
Broadcasting & Cable Magazine reported in April 2008 that Obama was not only outspending Sen. Hillary Clinton, but was also directing 40 percent of his television spending to prime time, compared to Clinton’s 18 percent in prime time. She stuck with the traditional political practice of advertising mostly on news shows.
TV Week quoted one Clinton campaigner saying the Obama spending was "earth-shattering, record-breaking, eye-popping."
According to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) in Washington, D.C., Senator Obama had raised $234.7 million by March 30, 2008 and had spent $183.7 million, leaving him with $51.1 million in cash and debts of $662,784. The CRP is a non-partisan, non-profit research group that tracks money in politics.
CRP said that in the same period:
- Senator Clinton raised $189.1 million, spent $157.4 million, had $31.7 million in cash and $10.3 million in debt.
- Senator John McCain, who clinched the Republican nomination earlier, raised $76.7 million, spent $65.1 million, had $11.6 million on hand and debts of $707,041.
Those numbers do not include April spending in Pennsylvania or Indiana. The International Herald Tribune reported that Obama spent $11 million and Clinton spent $4.5 million on campaign commercials from March 18 to April 16,
Before being forced out of the Republican race, Mitt Romney raised $104.8 million, much of it from his own funds, and Rudy Guillani raised $57.9 million.
Presidential Candidates Raised More Than $600 Million for Losing Campaigns
CRP said the 2008 presidential candidates in both parties raised more than $800 million, a record, by March 30, long before the two parties chose their candidates for the November election. By convention time, more than $600 million of that will have been spent on losing campaigns for the Democratic or Republican nomination.
"By some predictions, the eventual nominees will need to raise $500 million apiece to compete—a record sum," CRP said on its website.
The record spending by the presidential candidates was having a significant, but so far uneven, impact on the advertising media, especially television and the Internet.
Television Ad Spending Was Uneven Across the Nation During Primaries
In states which hosted highly competitive party primaries, stations experienced heavy, but brief, boosts in advertising. Stations in other states received little or no presidential advertising.
All media may have to wait much later than normal to receive general election advertising because the fight for the Demcratic nomination lasted so long. Although the Republicans named McCain earlier, they were limited in their general election advertising because they did not know whether he would be facing Obama or Clinton. Some Congressional campaigns may also get late starts waiting for the presidential race to clear up.
Pushing most of the political advertising back into September and October may result in a shortage of available commercial time when merchants begin gearing up for holiday marketing.
And if commercial time is limited, can higher ad prices be far behind?
