McCain Bests Obama With Olympics Buy

[brooklynite]

Source: AdWeek

The presidential campaign of Republican candidate John McCain, not wanting to be outdone by rival Democratic candidate Barack Obama, has made a $6 million advertising buy on NBC Universal's Olympic Games coverage which begins this Friday night.

The McCain campaign buy comes several weeks after the Obama campaign made a $5 million ad buy. McMain's move was not unexpected.

Sources familiar with the ad buys of both candidates said that the Obama ad buy was made several weeks ago, but details of the ad buy only became public last week. The McCain ad buy was made in recent days and became public today.

NBC had no comment on the ad buys of either candidate, although a listing of the ad buys can be found in NBC Universal's Political File, which must record all ad dollars spent by political candidates.

Read more: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3ibbefeb4c691150b5a680c555aa2a4c9d

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Maybe Cindy can double-up and do beer commercials with the Sturgis gang as well?

[librechik]

1. nobody watches the fucking Olympics.

what a loser McCain is.

[Tempest]

4. Not many in the U.S.

But the rest of the world does.

Not that it'll do McSame a damned bit of good.

I hope he wastes more of his money on useless endeavors.

[The Croquist]

11. If nobody watches the Olympics

why did NBC pay 1.5 billion to cover the 2006 winter and 2008 summer Olympics? They think people watch.

Obama must be almost as big a loser. He bought 5 million in advertising.

[librechik]

15. who knows. Prestige? They lost money last time.

Sure there's a worldwide audience. Not all of those will vote for US President. I'm sure Obama felt good about buying some advertising to support the athletes. I'm also sure he doesn't think that buy is crucial to a win.

[The Croquist]

19. I would be shocked if the commercials run overseas.

I also think NBC has US rights only not world-wide rights.

[underpants]

12. The Olympics are going to be the story of the month

everyone watches the olympics

[Angleae]

16. Only about 15% of the country

was tuned in to Athens on a day-to-day basis. Opening ceremonies caught appx 56 million viewers.

[dkf]

2. Can't stand to be outdone. What a joke.

[rurallib]

3. showing McCain after some stud wins a medal will be a huge contrast

who would ever think of Johnny as old and addled when his ad comes after say a dash event?

[angrycarpenter]

5. The olympics are going to be a ratings loser

Especially if China gets ahead in the medals count. They have spent a lot of government money to train their athletes and stand a good chance of beating us in total medals.

[comtec]

7. yeah "good money" on drugs that don't appear in tests

It's like the cold war again, the way the Soviets would skirt the line (and us too) in drug usage, and abusing their athletes to be better than ours.
I don't trust the Chinese (government) one inch. Oh well we'll see.

[Eurobabe]

6. that was money down the drain n/t

[merwin]

8. Isn't McCain on public financing?

This will take a fairly big chunk out of his funds.

[verges]

9. maybe that was the point.

Obama can certainly outspend overall. Was his Olympic buy just a trap to make McCain waste as much money as possible quickly? Probably not. But it would be cool if it worked out that way.

[joeglow3]

26. Public financing kicks in AFTER the convention .eom

[verges]

27. And to the best of my knowlwdge,

he is still raising money hand over fist above McCain.

[brooklynite]

24. He's still "running for the nomination"

[treestar]

10. People watching the Olympics will not pay attention to the ads

And may even resent political ads.

[peace13]

13. Aaa.. the only way to watch the olympics is to record them and bypass the commercials.

Guess they didn't get the memo.

[trapper914]

14. It CAN be a smart buy

Hopefully, McCain's ads will be a continuation of his current attacks on Obama.

My wish is that Obama makes his ads more about the athletes representing the USA with a message of hope for the future that would come under his presidency.

[Zenlitened]

17. Team McCain is goin' for the Olympic gold, baby!

Goin'. For. The. Gold. Oooh yeah!



:hurts:

[underpants]

18. Thrill of victory...something along those lines

:rofl:

[MadMaddie]

20. McCain's campaign just spent 6 million dollars they could

not afford. They will regret this closer to the election. And as we all know his commercials are horrible....lets see how well his Obama hate commercials go during the Olympics an event that is supposed about competition and camaraderie.

[truthisfreedom]

21. Obama should put all of his ads on during the gymnastics and ice skating.

The stuff that draws the big audiences.

[Vinca]

22. So I got up this morning and switched on MSNBC and what's on? Soccer.

I couldn't switch the channel fast enough to CNN. No one watches the Olympics except the athletes' families.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. Any mention on how often they'll play McSame's ads for free?

[Orsino]

25. Does McCain's US$6M buy much more time than Obama's five?

More suck is not better for McCain. Shouldn't he be trying to draw less attention?

[maseman]

28. It will buy less

I sell ad time and as a broadcast event nears the time per spot goes up due to less inventory. Obama probably got cheaper rates as he bought smartly weeks out.

[Orsino]

29. That was my first thought...

...but wouldn't equal-time concerns keep rates the same?

[CK_John]

30. There is no equal time rules. n/t

[cottonello]

31. Yet Obama leads McCain in all polls as we speak

McCain's move didn't dent Obama's lead.