No Summer Break for Campaign Ads
By Liz Sidoti
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Washington - In late summer when most people expect a break from presidential campaign ads, both sides in this year's White House race are blitzing the airwaves with more than $60 million worth of commercials.
Political campaigns traditionally spend less on advertising in August, when voters are thinking more about vacations and less about politics. But with the race between President Bush and John Kerry still tight, both sides are running wall-to-wall commercials in nearly two dozen competitive states and on national cable networks.
"The race is so close and it will be decided by so few voters in so few states that neither side can afford to go down," said Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies campaign ads.
Bush is spending at least $30 million on TV and radio ads this month. Kerry is not advertising until September to save money, but the Democratic National Committee is spending more than $20 million on TV ads and other liberal groups have committed more than $11 million. Conservative groups also are on the air but to a much lower extent.
The figure for August is expected to rise, with both sides spending more money each week.
And that's despite low viewership in August. An estimated 92.8 million people on average watch television on Sunday nights in August, compared with 110.7 million on comparable October evenings, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Hoping to catch sports fans, Bush is advertising on cable networks during the Olympic Games even though prices are anywhere from 25 percent to almost double the cost of ads during regular programming.
By Labor Day, the candidates, the parties and outside groups will have spent more than $280 million on an almost constant stream of commercials since ads for the general election began in March, months earlier than previous elections. It was the start of what would become an atypical political advertising season.
Through August, Bush will have spent more than $120 million on advertising, and Kerry about $80 million.
