Earlier this week, Tom mentioned that being in California means not getting to see the presidential campaign ads. Sitting in Ohio, I would have thought that was because both sides are spending ALL their money right here. Then I saw this fascinating page at cnn.com that shows a week-by-week, state-by-state account of who’s advertising where. The folks in Florida are being hit with a hurricane of advertising … a total of nearly 10,000 ads last week alone, compared to a paltry 7,500 in Ohio (and none at all in California). Kerry and various Democratic interest groups ran 6,700 ads in Florida last week, compared to 3,150 by Bush and GOP groups. That’s at least a gale-force blast of hot air!
Perhaps if either side had done a better job of establishing a positive brand identity, they could have run fewer, more effective ads. You can watch the ads at the CNN site, so if you’re feeling ignored by the candidates, take a look at how they’re courting those of us in the swing states. (And then go to factcheck.org to see who’s “stretching the truth” the farthest.)