An Expensive History of U.S. Political Advertisements

“Political advertising has developed into the most costly aspect of most political campaigns.” (Kaid & Batcha)

Political researchers Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz Batcha write about the financial burden of political campaign advertisements stressing that millions are spent to sway the public one way or another. They say, “In the 2004 presidential election, for instance, George W. Bush, John Kerry, their respective national party organizations, and independent groups supporting and opposing the two candidates spent a total of more than $600 million for television advertising (Devlin, 2005; TNS Media Intelligence, 2004)” (Kaid & Batcha). $600 million dollars spent on just ads alone is a steep cost to pay. This makes you wonder: Why spend so much on advertisements? $600 million dollars could have been spent solving issues the candidates are seemingly so eager to solve.

In a Business Insider article written by Laura Stampler, Stampler writes about the 2012 presidential election and how expensive the campaign ads were and what platforms they used to run the ads. Stampler says that President Obama and Mitt Romney spent their money largely on social media and website ads. Stampler writes, “Obama Spent More On Online Ads Than It Cost To Build The Lincoln Memorial" (Stampler, Business Insider) and that, "2012 boasted a $78 million online ad spend for the presidential election, compared to a $22.2 million in 2008" (Stampler, Business Insider). The amount spent on ads fund the surface level illusion of how our country’s future can change without really contributing to changing that future at all. This says a lot about our values as a culture and the values of the people in power.

(Stampler, Business Insider)

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