Barack Obama’s unprecedented ad spending continues to set records.
A new study out by the Wisconsin Advertising Project has found that Obama is oustpending John McCain by three to one on television, and that 75 percent of the spending is in red states.
“From October 21st to October 28th, spending on television advertising in the presidential campaign has totaled nearly $38 million. Over this time period, the Obama campaign spent nearly $21.5 million while the McCain campaign spent nearly $7.5 million. Another $6.7 million was spent by the Republican Party and $2.2 million was spent by interest groups.”
Additionally, the campaign of the candidate who keeps repeating that Americans are tired of attack politics and has built his campaign on a theme of changing the political discourse has sharply upped his negative ad buys “even as McCain’s team has mixed in a little sunshine into what had been one massive ad front of foreboding,” Crain’s Chicago Business reports, citing data from the Wisconsin study.
“[F]rom Oct. 21-28, 63% of the Obama ads and 79% of the McCain ads were negative. In its previous report, about ads running from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, the project said that 100% of the McCain campaign’s ads and 34% of the Obama campaign’s ads were negative.”
