What's Hot and What's Not in 2012 Presidential Advertising

[Commentary] In the 2012 general election campaign alone, 1.1 million references have been made in ads to jobs, taxes, the budget and government spending. In contrast, fewer than 25,000 references have been made to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fewer than 100,000 ad occurrences have mentioned education; fewer than 10,000 have mentioned defense. About 4,000 have mentioned immigration; fewer than 400 have mentioned the U.S. Supreme Court. From April (when the race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney began) through the first day of October, 309 unique ads have aired a collective 797,553 times. Many ads mention more than one issue. For example, taxes are often paired with government spending, Medicare with healthcare, etc. Certain ads have aired thousands of times apiece across 60-plus media markets; others have aired a few times in a few markets, or only once. Our informal survey takes a little license in equalizing airings across media markets and dayparts, regardless of differing ad rates or audience size, which is a no-no in any serious evaluation of advertising but is fine for this simpler purpose.

[Wilner is VP of Kantar Media's CMAG, which tracks and analyzes broadcast TV advertising content, placement and spend.]