According to a Bloomberg report, if one person had to sit down and watch all 525K or so ads run in this year’s presidential derby to date, it would take six months to complete the task. You definitely don’t want to try this one at home, although in some swing states, citizens probably think they are coming close to it.
The report cited a spot total of 526,633. We did the math from there just to check. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and – assuming that all of the spots were of the 30-second variety (even though some were no doubt 60-second ads), that works out to 2,880 per day. 526,633 divided by 2,880 works out to almost 183 days.
The Romney camp had a slim 50.3%-49.7% lead over the Obama camp.
The difference is that the Obama campaign has largely been running its own ads. Money from political action committees, on the other hand, has been going to support Romney by a 10-1 margin.
The study notes that Obama started early, but the Republican side has already caught up and has the momentum at the moment.
RBR-TVBR observation: I’m Dave Seyler, and I approve this observation:
As I have mentioned before, I live in a battleground state, so I can say with some authority that the campaigns can run all the ads they want, but we have long since started tuning them out.
Until they start making some really juicy charges, like “my opponent likes feeding peyote to stray cats,” we are unlikely to start tuning in any time soon.
Members of my immediate family have already begun shouting “Enough!” and other more forceful things when yet another iteration of a presidential campaign ad hits the screen.
More often, the ads provide time to get a soda, run an errand or sit in silent glassy-eyed reflection pondering an earlier, simpler time – just a few short months ago — when personal injury lawyers yelled at us during these special moments.
We know it’s good for business, but at the same time, there’s just gotta be a better way to run a democracy.
