Obama holds advertising advantage over McCain
Friday, 10 October 2008
WASHINGTON, Oct 09 (AP): Barack Obama spent $3.3 million in TV advertising Monday. At that rate the Democrat will spend more than $90 million on ads through Election Day - more than all the money Republican rival John McCain has to spend on his entire fall campaign.
McCain's ad spending Monday totaled about $900,000 and the Republican National Committee weighed in with about $700,000 worth.
All whopping numbers, but the disparity between Obama and the Republicans is so wide that it has allowed Obama to spend in more states than McCain, to appear more frequently in key markets and to diversify his message by both attacking McCain and promoting his own personal story.
With national and state polls showing him building a broader lead over McCain, Obama has switched to a more positive pitch. Last week, only 34 percent of his ads attacked McCain directly while virtually all of McCain's ads attacked Obama, according to a study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One of Obama's most recent ads came as Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, made an issue of Obama's connections to 1960s radical Bill Ayers and argued that Obama "is not a man who sees America like you and I see America."
The ad bespeaks Americana. In it, Obama recalls being a child, sitting on his grandfather's shoulders and waving an American flag as they watched astronauts return from a splashdown. "And my grandfather would say, 'Boy, Americans, we can do anything when we put our minds to it.'"
The ad offers a direct response to Palin. But it also illustrates Obama's continuing need as an African-American to reassure voters about his candidacy.
Boosted by an economy in crisis and a saturation of advertising, Obama has built up his margins over McCain in Democratic-leaning battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
McCain's ad spending Monday totaled about $900,000 and the Republican National Committee weighed in with about $700,000 worth.
All whopping numbers, but the disparity between Obama and the Republicans is so wide that it has allowed Obama to spend in more states than McCain, to appear more frequently in key markets and to diversify his message by both attacking McCain and promoting his own personal story.
With national and state polls showing him building a broader lead over McCain, Obama has switched to a more positive pitch. Last week, only 34 percent of his ads attacked McCain directly while virtually all of McCain's ads attacked Obama, according to a study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One of Obama's most recent ads came as Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, made an issue of Obama's connections to 1960s radical Bill Ayers and argued that Obama "is not a man who sees America like you and I see America."
The ad bespeaks Americana. In it, Obama recalls being a child, sitting on his grandfather's shoulders and waving an American flag as they watched astronauts return from a splashdown. "And my grandfather would say, 'Boy, Americans, we can do anything when we put our minds to it.'"
The ad offers a direct response to Palin. But it also illustrates Obama's continuing need as an African-American to reassure voters about his candidacy.
Boosted by an economy in crisis and a saturation of advertising, Obama has built up his margins over McCain in Democratic-leaning battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.