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2020 ElectionsReleases

Presidential, House Ads Slow to Trickle

Photo: Joe Biden Campaign Senate Ads Still Airing;Nine Percent of Federal Ads on TV Mention Coronavirus     (MIDDLETOWN, CT) April 9, 2020 – Television advertising in the presidential race has slowed to a trickle in the past couple of weeks just prior to Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign and ending the 2020 Democratic nomination race—and ads have dropped off in House and Senate races as well. Figure 1 shows the number of airings in the presidential race by week, which peaked at almost 150,000 at the end of February 2020 (shown in the solid line). But in the past…
2020 ElectionsReleases

Ad Spending Ramps Up in Florida, Illinois, Ohio

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr More than $1 Billion Spent in Democratic Nomination Campaign, 30% on Digital     (MIDDLETOWN, CT) March 11, 2020 – Voters in four states with large numbers of delegates (Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio) will cast presidential primary ballots on March 17. Spending on television ads in these states during the past week (between March 4 and 8) was around $6.5 million (Table 1). Sanders spent $2.6 million on ads in these four states, while Biden topped $1.6 million. There was also some advertising from Michael Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race on March 4, and…
2020 ElectionsReleases

Presidential Ad Spending Approaches $900 Million

Photo: Mike Bloomberg Campaign Bloomberg Ad Spending Unprecedented, Tops Previous General Election Candidate Spending     (MIDDLETOWN, CT) February 26, 2020 – A new analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project has identified $617 million in spending on television ads in the presidential race, while digital spending in the presidential race has soared to about $260 million.   “It is possible we reach $1 billion in ad spending before Super Tuesday,” said Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project.   Television advertising was led by Michael Bloomberg, whose spending has surpassed $377 million for over 444,000 ads (Table 1).…
Wesleyan Media Project
February 26, 2020
2016 ElectionsBlogReleases

Eschewing policy in advertising? Lessons from 2016

Photo: Lorie Shaull   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) February 25, 2020 – Michael Bloomberg’s recent political ad, which portrays Donald Trump as a bully, has prompted discussion on social media about the effectiveness of personal versus policy attacks. Many of these discussions invoked a Wesleyan Media Project analysis from 2016 published in The Forum. In this research, we demonstrated that Clinton ran one of the most unusual presidential advertising campaigns in recent history by focusing overwhelmingly on personal characteristics of her opponent, Trump. While our 2016 study did not speak to effectiveness of personal versus policy ads, there is evidence that candidates suffer…
Wesleyan Media Project
February 25, 2020