How to Enjoy Your Television in Peace
Are you already sick of campaign commercials? Given that since the August 10th primaries, U.S. Senate candidates Richard Blumenthal and Linda McMahon have spent at least $285k on 216 spots, no one would blame you for feeling this way.
Last week, I did a bit of research for my Connecticut News Junkie piece on the U.S. Senate race into television advertising buys. There was a rumor making its way through political circles that Mrs. McMahon had put in a gargantuan ad buy for the post-primary season and I wanted to see if there was any truth to it. I collected the publicly-available tv advertising files from the Hartford-area television stations: WVIT (NBC Connecticut), WFSB (Connecticut’s CBS Affiliate), and FOXCT (the local Fox network) to see what the deal was.
It turned out that the McMahon campaign had put in a large buy, but not because they sought to go nuclear on Blumenthal right out of the gate after the primary. They just bought two weeks’ worth of television in one order, making it seem twice the size.
With that explanation in hand and the article already published, there isn’t much utility left in the data I collected – unless you’d like a look at how political campaigns buy television ads, what they cost, and when they are on TV. Boring to most, I know, but perhaps intriguing to some.
Mrs. McMahon and Mr. Blumenthal might be miles apart on public policy issues, but they have a lot in common when it comes to TV ads. If you are a regular watcher of morning and/or evening news programming, for example, you see quite a lot of the Linda and Dick Show.
But just because its a campaign doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Both candidates hit The People’s Court with some regularity, as well as Ellen, Oprah, and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien Jay Leno.
Like the man, Blumenthal’s ad placements are pretty vanilla – America’s Got Talent and House are about as exciting as it gets. Of course, Blumie would probably sue Dr. House in real life and he’d have to move his practice to the set of Royal Pains.
In 2000, a poll showed that more people would like to have a beer with then-Governor George W. Bush than with Vice President Al Gore. Whatever you think about her qualifications for the United States Senate, I don’t think there is any argument that Mrs. McMahon would be way more fun than Blumenthal (or Bush, for that matter) when it comes to drinking beers or watching television. When it comes to putting advertisements on TV, she makes that entertaining, too.
McMahon had 30 second spots all to herself amid shows like Flashpoint, CSI:NY, The Mentalist, Big Brother, and SNL.
A careful observer will also note that other than shows named after the various times of the day, NBC is apparently getting out of the business of showing television programs that people want to watch.
Linda also hit two preseason New York Giants football games – but no Pats games, Mrs. McMahon? Just because some of us live east of the river doesn’t mean we vote in Rhode Island.
So here is the full spreadsheet – use it to plot out when you will watch so you can see your favorite campaign ad, craft a strategy for missing them all, or just bemuse yourself with the oddities of modern politics.
