Obama Purchases 30 Minutes Of Primetime TV
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Media, Money
While not unprecedented, we haven’t seen this type of move in a while. In fact, I think the last person running for office to do this was Ross Perot.
Barack Obama has purchased a half-hour of primetime television on CBS and NBC, sources confirm.The Obama campaign is producing a nationwide pitch to voters that will air on at least two broadcast networks. The ad will run Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. — less than a week before the general election.
The direct purchase of such a large block of national airtime right before an election used to be more commonplace before campaigns began to focus their endgame strategies exclusively on battleground states. Such a move is not without precedent in modern presidential politics, however — Ross Perot did a similar purchase in 1992.
The special is a smart move for the Obama campaign, said Larry Sabato, a political analyst and director of the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.
“Obama’s theme is not just change but unity, so he’s appealing to the whole nation rather than a handful of tossup states,” Sabato said. “He wants to win the popular vote by a good margin, which will enable him to govern.”
The Obama campaign is also said to be in negotiations with Fox. I wonder if ABC said no.
No doubt this would cost tens of millions of dollars, but with Obama’s war chest seemingly overflowing, that’s a cost he can easily bear.
This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Media, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I hope that if the race is no contest at that point he simply sponsors an uninterrupted episode of The Family Guy with a short introduction encouraging people to vote…that would be cool.
How about the episode “Da Boom” from Season Two?
October 10th, 2008 at 9:41 am
When a good chunk of your donates come illegally from overseas, you better believe he has lots of dough.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am
SaneInSF: Do you have any sources to back that claim up? This is the first I’ve heard of such. I’d be very interested.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I heard $1 million for the CBS buy.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Yeah its working out to be around a mil for each network, give or take 100k.
And SaneinSF: McCain has his own problems with donations he’s received. Check into the FEC – they sent letters telling both candidates to fix (return) “illegal” funds. Its not particularly surprising some money from overseas got thru to both candidates considering the staggering number of donations and donors.