More than $5 billion spent on broadcast campaign ads in swing states
NORTH CAROLINA (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Ahead of the 2024 Election, campaigns made their last ditch effort to win over voters, especially on TV in almost every single commercial break.
In many cases, scathing 30-second attack ads back-to-back ending with a candidate endorsing the message. But not all Americans are being treated equally in terms of how many ads they are seeing.
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North Carolina, along with the other swing states, is being flooded with political ads. It’s estimated that almost $4 out of every $5 spent on the Presidential Election has gone to just the seven swing states. And despite the rise in social media over the last three election cycles, the majority of campaigns are still heavily relying on television ads to get their message across.
“We are a state that splits our ticket. We are a state that has tight elections. Add all of that up and what that means is lots of ads, full mailboxes, and text messages are full. The volume is up in North Carolina,” Chris Cooper, a Political Science professor at Western Carolina University, said.
Right now, Democrats look to have outspent Republicans for overall ad space, but together the two parties are breaking records. More than $10 billion was spent, more than half of which on broadcast ads.
“Part of it is, it is harder to change. When it comes to TikTok or social media, it’s a lot easier to skip past it to get off of it. If it is a television, you are more likely to see that ad, to get their message in their perspective,” Cooper said.
Campaigns use ads to tell the story of their candidate- who they are and what they stand for or against. Those who craft those ads say a lot goes into it.
“We are testing both before the ad even runs, so we are testing to find the message that works and with what audience. We develop the creative base of that and then if we have the opportunity, we actually run tests beforehand to see if the message in its art form actually works as opposed to a written message,” The President of the American Associations of Political Consultants (AAPC) Larry Huynh said.
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the AAPC is a bipartisan trade group made up of professionals who help run campaigns. Huynh says while the broadcast has historically been the legacy mechanism to reach voters, spending on digital platforms continues to grow. “This cycle, what we have done very differently in my campaigns, is we have used creators and influencers in a way that we did not do two years ago.”
Whether or not an ad campaign works is ultimately decided at the polls. But political experts say they do have the ability to move the needle, especially in swing states like North Carolina. “They really do make a difference. Now, we are not talking 5 percentage points, 10 percentage points, or anything like that — but at the margin, ads do make a difference,” Cooper said.
AdImpact, an intelligence company that tracks ad data, estimates that more than $5 billion has been spent on broadcast ads, $1.9 billion on cable, and $1.2 billion on digital ads.
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