The firm paid to make ads for Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) — such as one that used audio from the recent congressional shooting — was part of the crew behind such low-budget “classics” such as Thong Girl 3: Revenge of the Dark Widow, a 2007 video notorious for partially filming in the office of Mayor Don Wright, of Gallatin, Tennessee, Alabama Today reports.
Political Advertising
Research Shows Gender Attacks on Women Work
From a new research paper:
The results suggest that female candidates are particularly vulnerable to trait based attacks that challenge stereotypically feminine strengths. Both male and female candidates proved vulnerable to attacks on policy issues stereotypically associated with their party and gender, but the negative effects of all forms of stereotype-based attacks were especially large for democratic women.
Democrats Need to Change How They Buy Ads
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Nasty Ad Links Ossoff to Congressional Shooting
Jon Ossoff (D) and Karen Handel (R) strongly condemned an attack ad that surfaced accusing the “unhinged left” of endorsing violence against Republicans days before the nationally-watched race to represent Georgia’s 6th District is decided, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The ad, funded by a little-known group called the Principled PAC, opens with sounds of gunshots and footage of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) being wheeled away on a stretcher after he and other members of the Republican congressional baseball team were ambushed by a lone gunman while practicing in a Washington suburb.”
Pro-Trump Group Slams Comey In New Ad
A nonprofit issues group is labeling James Comey a political “showboat” in a television ad set to air Thursday, the day the former FBI director testifies on Capitol Hill, the AP reports.
Comey “put politics over protecting America,” a narrator says in the 30-second spot, titled “Showboat,” which was shared with The Associated Press. It accuses him of being “consumed with election meddling” even as “terror attacks were on the rise.”
Clinton Essentially Ran a Policy-Free Campaign
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Please Re-Elect Gerald
After a disheartening presidential campaign, we could use more political ads like this one:
What’s Behind Trump’s Bizarre Ad Strategy?
“It’s seven weeks before Election Day, five days before the highly anticipated first debate, and Donald Trump’s television advertisements have all but vanished,” Politico reports.
“Trump’s ads last ran nearly a week ago in four battleground states: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since then, the GOP presidential nominee has ceded the airwaves to Hillary Clinton — and is only poised to launch a limited, less-targeted ad campaign in the days before next week’s debate.”
One Key Metric Where Trump Lags Badly
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Senate Advertising Bigger Than Presidential
“In another sign of the unusual nature of this election year, slightly more has been spent thus far on general-election broadcast television ads targeting U.S. Senate contests than on those for the White House race,” Bloomberg reports.
“Kantar Media/CMAG shows $129.3 million has been spent through Aug. 29 on the general-election phase of 18 Senate races, compared to $128.4 million that’s been plowed into TV ads for the presidential campaign… Through the first eight months of 2012, for example, $350 million had been spent on general-election ads for the presidential race, while just $70 million had been spent on 22 Senate races.”
Clinton Reserves $80 Million In New TV Time
“Hillary Clinton has reserved nearly $80 million in additional television advertising across eight key states in coming months… offering both a window into how the Democrat sees the presidential contest shaping up and a reminder of her dominance on the airwaves in the the race against Republican Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“The campaign is targeting Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition, Clinton is continuing to advertise in the Omaha market in Nebraska, one of only two states that awards its electoral votes based on performance in congressional districts.”
“The Trump campaign, by contrast, launched its first general-election TV ad last week, saying it planned to spend $4.8 million on a 10-day buy in four states: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”
CNN: “Two states that the Clinton campaign will not air local ads in through September and October: Virginia and Colorado.”
Trump Still Hasn’t Spent Any Money on Ads
“Nearly $100 million has been spent on general-election TV advertisements in the presidential race since the primary season ended, but Donald Trump’s campaign still hasn’t spent a single cent on one of them,” NBC News reports.
Voters Report Seeing Trump Ads That Don’t Exist
“Nearly half of voters in a recent survey said they had seen TV ads supporting Donald Trump in the last week. There’s just one problem: His campaign hasn’t aired any, and his friendly super PACs have run very few,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Meanwhile, 52% of respondents said they had seen an ad promoting Democrat Hillary Clinton—just six percentage points more than the proportion who said they had spotted Trump ads.”
Networks See Convention Jackpot
Bloomberg: “The presidential primary season has been a ratings bonanza for cable-news outlets, and it can only get better when the major parties hold their nominating conventions next month. So why not seize the moment?”
“CNN is charging advertisers $40,000 to $100,000 for a 30-second spot during the Republican and Democratic conventions, compared with about $5,000 for a normal prime-time commercial… Fox News plans to charge similar rates.”
Democrats Ran No Negative Ads In Primary
Bloomberg: “According to Kantar Media, Clinton and Sanders aired 206,528 spots between them this year—and not one was deemed “negative” by the analysts in Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.”
Said Kantar exec Elizabeth Wilner: “In an open presidential primary, this is probably unprecedented.”