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« 2012
General Election Ad
Campaign in Colorado and Virginia
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Campaign | Virginia Ad
Campaign
2012 General Election Ad Campaign in Colorado and Virginia
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
feature made
possible thanks to assistance from the Center for Media and
Public Affairs (VA) and Ms. Janice Bates (CO).
COLORADO
|
VIRGINIA
Introduction
These pages aim to give a sense of what TV ads
the campaigns,
super
PACs and others were running in a couple of battleground states
during the latter part of the 2012 general election
campaign.
They are based on reviews of the "News4 at 5 pm" and "News4 at
6
pm" local
newscasts on WRC Channel 4, the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC,
comprising a
total block of time of up to two hours each day over the five weeks
leading
up to Nov. 6, and of the hour-long "News at 9" local newscasts on FOX
31 in
Denver, CO over the eight weeks leading up to Nov. 6.
Viewers in the two markets saw a lot of ads from the presidential
race. The Wesleyan Media Project (1,
2)
reported
that
in
the
period
from
Oct.
1-29,
2012
the
Denver
market
was
the
top
market
in
the country by volume of presidential ads and
Washington, DC was in the top ten. As a measure of how intense
the ad campaign became, consider that on Oct. 31 every ad aired in the
FOX 31's hour-long "News at 9" broadcast was a
political ad, and on Nov. 1 every ad
in the two-hour "News4 at 5 pm" and "News4 at
6
pm" block was a political ad. Although the typical viewer may not
have been happy, It was the "full monty" for campaign ad aficionados.
In addition to presidential ads, viewers in both Northern Virginia
and Denver saw plenty of political advertising from other campaigns as
well. In Virginia the high-profile
U.S. Senate race between Tim Kaine and George Allen played out in
markets across the state. Virginia TV viewers in the Washington,
DC market receive a double dose of political ads as DC stations also
reach Maryland. WRC
viewers thus saw ads from
competitive
Maryland campaigns, most notably for and against Question 7
(gambling), that would not have been
seen in other Virginia markets. In Denver, viewers saw ads from
three U.S. House
races--the 6th (Coffman-Miklosi), 7th (Perlmutter-Coors) and 3rd
(Tipton-Pace) congressional districts and a few for Amendment 64.
News programming is prime territory for political advertisers, for
these viewers have at least some interest in current affairs.
However
it must be noted that different newscasts have different
audiences.
Generalizing, a 5
p.m.
broadcast would have more retired people and stay-at-home moms among
its viewers, while the 6 p.m. and later broadcasts would draw people
who have come home from work. Additionally, individual viewers
naturally have preferences
among the various stations offering local news in a given market.
Data
from firms such as Scarborough
Research allow the campaigns and their media buyers to drill down and
target blue collar
workers or single women or higher income viewers or other demographics
as desired.
This survey is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all
campaign and political
ads run these states or even in these markets during the periods
examined. Looking at invoices (examples 1, 2 [PDFs],
FCC), one sees that the campaigns
and interest groups spread their advertising throughout the day and
week from the early morning newscasts through programs such as "Regis
& Kelly" and "Judge Judy" to the late evening newscast. Thus
reviewing
larger blocks of time and/or other program segments on these stations
or
reviewing other
stations or cable TV would have found a
different mix of
political ads.
The objective here is to give a sense of the
political ad ecosystem, showing for example what groups were running
ads in the market and what ads were running on a particular day.
Questions to consider are: What proportion of the advertising is
political, and does that
increase as Election Day approaches? What is the mix of ads from
the presidential as opposed to the other political campaigns?
What is
the
balance between ads from the
campaigns and ads from outside groups?
Details, Methodology and Limitations
The newscasts were recorded daily by helpful volunteers. In both
instances, a
few days were missing and there were also some partial samples where
the beginning or end of the broadcast was missing.
The structure of the local
newscasts examined was fairly similar.
Each hour-long newscast typically had six ad breaks which went for two
to three minutes. In addition to the 30-second spots, there were
15-second
spots
(sometimes two 15-second spots from the same advertiser were run in an
ad
break, one at the beginning and one at the end) and one-minute
spots. A greater variety of ad lengths was seen on WRC Channel 4
(where 10-second spots and even 5-second spots as well as a
two-minute spot and a 90-second spot were noted) than on FOX 31.
Along with the full-fledged ads run during the broadcasts, both
stations ran
various
and sundry sponsored station promos, highlighting other station
programming or station involvement in public service activities.
These were not
considered in
the analysis.
In analyzing the relative numbers of different types of ads that
aired, two
different measures are possible: number of ads and ad time. These
produce slightly
different results. The difference arises because the regular
commercials include typically include a number of shorter
ads (most commonly 15-second ads) while the political ads often include
some longer ads (most commonly one-minute ads).
Partial samples, where, for example, the day's recording starts
late or cuts off before the end of the newscast require careful
attention. If, for example one
wanted to consider the balance of Obama and Romney ads in the broadcast
from a particular day,
using a partial sample could well lead to erroneous conclusions.
However, if one is looking at broader questions such as the percentage
of ads that are political as opposed to
nonpolitical or ads that are presidential ads as opposed to other
political
ads, it seems
reasonable to include partial samples Going further, one
must also decide what to do if there is partial ad break; in that case
including the ads would seem to be less satisfactory.
Another
tricky area is the evening newscasts on weekends. These are
atypical, often abbreviated or even eliminated due to sports
programming. In this survey, the weekend samples from FOX 31 were
more robust and
are included, whereas those for WRC are not.
Discussion
Coincidentally, in each sample, ads from a total of 26 different
groups were seen. While the presidential campaigns and groups
with big
budgets such as American Crossroads and Priorities USA Action
advertised throughout, other groups "chose their spots." For
example, the pro-Romney group Americans for Job Security aired "Running" in
both states in late Sept.-early Oct. but no further ads from them were
seen in the sample. Keeping in mind that this survey looks at a
just a sliver of programming, a couple of RNC independent expenditure
ads were noted: "Golden"
(VA, late Sept.) "It's
OK" (CO, late Oct.). In many campaigns there often seem to be
a few
groups that go up fairly late, and one sees that in both samples.
One of the clearest differences seen in the WRC Channel 4 and FOX 31 samples was the notable increase in the proportion of presidential ads in the last week on the Denver station, while on the DC station the proportion remained fairly constant throughout. In the FOX 31 sample one saw a number of pro-Romney groups weighing in late (American Future Fund, Crossroads GPS and the RNC independent expenditure). The fact that the DC market hits both Northern Virginia and Maryland may have affected matters as well; the competitive VA Senate and MD Question 7 races could have created such demand that there wasn't room for more presidential ads. Depending on area races, viewers in other Virginia markets such as Newport News/Norfolk/Portsmouth or Roanoke/Lynchburg may have seen an increase in the proportion of presidential ads in that last week similar to that seen on FOX 31.
While the economy was a dominant ad theme, the battle for the women's vote was an evident if secondary thread in the ads on both these local newscasts. The Obama campaign ran ads on Romney's views on abortion and Planned Parenthood starting in the summer and continuing sporadically throughout. "Dangerous" (Sept. 11) and "Decision" (Oct. 12) and a Planned Parenthood Votes ad (Oct. 11) focused on women's health and Planned Parenthood. Additionally moms made quite a few appearances in ads. "Pay the Bills" (Sept. 18 through to the start of the study period) featured a mom, Christie, on Romney's tax cut proposals. In the Romney campaign's "Sarah" (Oct. 18), Sarah Minto, a suburban mom in her kitchen, addressed abortion and contraception, stating, "This issue's important to me, but I'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with." This Romney ad continued to run into early November. The Obama campaign responded with "Seen" (Oct. 18). American Crossroads also ran a couple of distinctive ads featuring a mom or mom actor ("Sack It" from Oct. 16 and "Debate" from Oct. 31). In Colorado, the pro-Romney American Future Fund weighed in fairly late (Oct. 27) with "Real Solutions," featuring a series of women facing the camera. Advertising targeting the women's vote may well have been more intense on cable and in some other programming.
Finally, one wonders about the effectiveness of political advertising in the final week(s) before Election Day. People are weary of the campaign (+) and the ad clutter increases to saturation levels. Bombarded by campaign ad after campaign ad, viewers may well tune out these messages even more than usual. This is a possible explanation of why Americans for Job Security and RNC independent expenditure ads were seen in late September/early October but not in the closing weeks. (Standing out from the clutter poses a challenge to admakers. In Massachusetts, for example, U.S. House candidate Richard Tisei ran a 30-second spot toward the close of the campaign showing Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. “Because you deserve a break from all the campaign ads,” text of the ad stated. Apart from Tisei's disclaimer, the audio consisted of the sounds of surf and seagulls).
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