To Catch Up, Gov Perry Makes a Big Ad Buy

Ramping up his effort to recover from his embarrassing debate performance, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) purchased nearly $1 million in advertising time on Fox News Channel, an extraordinary commitment of resources intended to jolt his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination back on track.

The purchase was an unusual move at this stage of a presidential nominating season, when most campaign advertising resources are devoted to broadcast stations in the early voting states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, not to national networks. Rival campaigns and media analysts took the move as a sign that Perry’s advertising team believes raising his standing nationally with Republican opinion makers and donors — many of whom have their office televisions tuned to Fox News all day — is as important as doing so in critical states. The two-week campaign will cost four times as much as Gov Perry has spent on commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire in the last 14 days, according to data provided by Kantar Media/CMAG, a private firm that tracks political advertising.