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Wesleyan Media Project

2020 ElectionsReleases

Trump Focuses on Crime While Biden Talks COVID, Business, Economy

Photo: Joe Biden Campaign Presidential Ad War Tightens as Biden Closes the Gap on TV; Trump Continues to Dominate Digital   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) August 12, 2020 – A new analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project, in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, shows a presidential race that is fairly balanced when it comes to the ad war on television in the period leading up to Biden announcing his pick for vice president. Since July 14, Joe Biden’s campaign, along with pro-Biden advertisers, has aired about 54,000 ads compared to 63,000 ads for Donald Trump and his group allies (Table…
Wesleyan Media Project
August 12, 2020
Blog

Why Is Digital Advertising So Hard to Track?

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr(MIDDLETOWN, CT) August 7, 2020 – Since 2010, the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP) has tracked political advertising on television, but the project only started providing data on digital advertising in 2018—and those numbers carry with them several caveats.  Why is it so hard to track digital advertising?1. The major social media platforms libraries don’t cover all digital advertising. While Facebook (including Instagram) and Google (including YouTube) have provided data on ads since May 2018, most vendors that place advertising on third-party sites do not provide any public information on their political ad sales (Google Ad Networks is the…
Wesleyan Media Project
August 7, 2020
2020 ElectionsReleases

Trump Spends Big on TV Ads While Biden Holds Back

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr Senate Ads Spike; Eight Races See 10,000 Spots since May   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) July 2, 2020 – A new analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project, in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that Donald Trump has ramped up his TV ad spending. Through the entire cycle to-date, President Trump has aired just over 55,000 ads on television (on broadcast, national cable and national network stations) at an estimated cost of $52 million. Table 1 shows that 50,000 of those Trump spots have aired since May 11, a time period during which Biden aired only 3,103…
Wesleyan Media Project
July 2, 2020
2020 ElectionsReleases

Maine, North Carolina Top Senate Races

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr TV Ad Volumes Similar to Past Years     (MIDDLETOWN, CT) May 14, 2020 – A new analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project, in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that advertising in U.S. Senate races is heating up. Maine has the most intense Senate race in the country so far, judging by the number of airings. Between January 1 and May 10, 2020, about 23,000 television ads had aired at a cost of $9.6 million (Table 1). In terms of total dollars spent on advertising, North Carolina tops the list, with just under $11…
Wesleyan Media Project
May 14, 2020