Legal Commentary

Report: Obama Outspent Hillary 2:1 on Ohio Ads, Still Lost

By Jeralyn

The University of Wisconsin Advertising project has released an interesting report (pdf)on ad spending in Ohio by the candidates and interest groups supporting them:

Obama outspent Hillary 2 to 1 on ads.

In the high-profile Ohio presidential primary campaign, the campaigns of the two Democratic candidates for president aired over 16,000 spots, spending approximately $6.8 million. Obama outspent Clinton by a margin of nearly two-to-one, with the Illinois Senator spending over $4.4 million to air just over 10,000 spots. Clinton spent $2.3 million and aired just over six thousand spots. Republicans were largely absent in Ohio; neither John McCain nor Mike Huckabee aired a single ad leading up to the Ohio primary.

The SEIU and United Food and Commerical Workers Int'l Union spent $1 million in Ohio on ads for Obama. The 527 group supporting Hillary took spent $80,000. [More...]

American Leadership Project (ALP), a 527 group supporting Clinton, spent over $80,000 and aired over 175 ads. Obama saw more advertising on his behalf, with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) spending over $1 million combined to air nearly 2,500 spots. Groups supporting Obama ran more ads than groups supporting Senator Clinton in every media market.

And it seems a little criticism of your opponent while campaigning doesn't hurt:

Over one-fifth of Clinton’s advertisements contained negative content, while less than five percent of Obama’s ads were negative. All these ads drew contrasts between the two Democratic candidates. In general, the tone of the campaign was positive, with the vast majority of ads from both campaigns promoting their candidate. The “3am phone call” ads did not air in Ohio media markets, but did receive extensive coverage on the news.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).