26 Million Watched Obama Infomercial
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Media, Video
Including this man, who accounted for 17 of the viewings.
Barack Obama’s prime-time infomercial drew 26.3 million viewers across three broadcast networks last night, according to early ratings from Nielsen Media Research.That number includes data from the top 56 television markets Nielsen rates and only includes viewers who watched the 8 p.m. half-hour special on CBS, NBC and Fox. The number does not include viewers who watched on Univision, MSNBC, BET or TV One, which also aired the ad.
Nielsen will release more comprehensive data this afternoon, and the total audience measure likely will change.
Not too shabby, although I’m sure he would have preferred debate numbers. Still, that probably wasn’t realistic.
My guess is if Obama sees a significant bump from this, you’ll see this tactic used in 2012 from both sides.
Here’s a little more analysis…
Did it swing you?
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Media, Video. 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 30th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
That brings up something I was contemplating in regard to this. We all know that campaign finance was enacted in part due to spending disparities between parties, which at the time favored the GOP fairly heavily.
We also know that the democrats turned this around with Obama and he subsequently bailed on public finance. And the end result was that Obama had way, way, way more money to spend on his campaign.
Over the past week, many bloggers have veered towards talking about this election in the past tense, presuming Obama’s election inevitable, and moving right on to “what does the GOP do next?”
The responses I’ve seen to that have leaned towards arguments about tactics, platforms, bases, and ideological approaches. At this point, I wouldn’t make any bets about which way the GOP will go on such matters.
But one thing I think you can bet the house on is a dead serious GOP commitment not to be out-fundraised in 2012. There’ll be 100% agreement about the travesty of the 2008 gap, and matching or beating democrats will become job 1. Some dissenters may say that money won’t solve the various other issues, but that won’t stop fundraising from quickly becomes a major focus of efforts for 2010 and 2012.
This is so obvious I am surprised I was the first person to make this call.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I thought the knotty pine Oval Office was a little cringe worthy. But I guess they were willing to risk seeming presumtuous in an effort to help us adjust our eyes to seeing Obama with the trappings of office. (They were too early with the “Obama seal”) It won’t convince anyone; but I think they just wanted to comfort the jittery “leaners” - those who have that little voice in their head that says, “A black guy in the oval office? Really??” During that opening sequence, I thought Barack was going to walk around that desk, look right in the camera, and say, “Yeah - really…”