From WSJ
August 26, 2008, 5:31 pm
McCain’s Hillary-Themed Ads Are Barely Broadcast
Aaron Rutkoff reports from Denver on the Democratic convention.
Even before
Hillary Clinton takes the stage for tonight’s big speech, she has emerged as an unusually bipartisan star in the hullabaloo surrounding the convention.
John McCain’s campaign, sensing an opportunity to rub salt in Democratic wounds, has since Sunday released three television ads dominated by Sen. Clinton. The commercials are part of a media assault that aims to draw more of the New York senator’s frustrated supporters into the McCain camp.
In the press releases accompanying each new ad, the McCain team pledges to air them in “key states.” But don’t expect to see many show up in battleground state living rooms. According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which monitors political advertising across the country, only one of the three Clinton-themed ads has been broadcast so far –- and that ad,
featuring a Clinton delegate who now endorses McCain, is only airing in Toledo, Ohio.
That doesn’t mean these McCain ads won’t be seen by voters. The national media, which has its sensors tuned to any signs of Clinton-Obama drama in Denver, have readily amplified the messages. “These were basically video press releases,” says CMAG’s Evan Tracey. McCain’s Hillary-related ads are “designed to get under Democrats’ skin in Denver and designed to get into the convention coverage.”
These moves to deploy Clinton’s primary defeat and subsequent rejection as Obama’s running mate as a wedge issue among the Democratic faithful marks an interesting departure from previous Republican strategy surrounding all things Hillary. Usually, Clinton anxiety plays a role in Republican efforts to rally its base. Since 2007, according to CMAG data, GOP candidates, parties and allied groups have spent over $7 million to broadcast some 9,000 ads raising the specter of a resurgent Clinton as a rallying cry.
The
most recent McCain ad reprises Clinton’s famous “3 a.m.” theme from the primaries, in which she challenged voters to think about who they wanted handling a late-night global crisis from the White House. In McCain’s retread of the scenario, Clinton is quoted from the primaries praising McCain’s “lifetime of experience” and belittling Obama by comparison. Ironically, however, the Clinton campaign also released a
second, lesser-remembered “3 a.m.” ad during the primary battle that reframed the late-night emergency around housing –- and blasted McCain for failing to respond.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has also embraced the TV ad as press release tactic. Those recent commercials raking McCain over the coals for his troubles enumerating the houses he owns? They’ve received abundant attention on the news channels, but there’s no sign yet that they are on the air otherwise.
UPDATE:
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said, “The ads are running exactly where we said they would.
The ‘Passed Over’ ad just ran on local Denver NBC five minutes ago. They ran on cable both last night and today during convention coverage…They’re running in key markets in the key states we’ve cited.”
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